Americas Rugby Championship a winless campaign

Uruguay upended USA 'A' 26-8 in the final round of the Americas Rugby Championship, sending the shadow Eagles home from British Columbia winless.

In scoring just 14 points while conceding 88 to the Teros and equivalent Argentine and Canadian reserve sides, the Mike Tolkin-led squad was a competitive disappointment.

Yet the primary metric for any development side is whether players bolster the senior ranks. How many from the 26-man roster will make next month's European squad to face Russia, Tonga, and Romania? Shall they improve the test team?

Approximately 36 months remain before the next World Cup squad will be named. Most leading countries aim to have the balance of their team in place 18 months beforehand, in order to refine core strategies, test various player combinations and account for injuries, and so on. So, even if enlarging the scenario, the US has a little less than two full seasons.

It's also important to understand where these 'A' squad players are coming from.

Forwards Derk Asbun, Taylor Mokate, and Tony Purpura along with halfback Shaun Davies have already earned international honors, while Miles Craigwell and Zach Pangelinan have been 7s Eagles. Forwards Cam Dolan and Tom Katzfey plus scrumhalf Benny Mateialona have been among senior USA training squads.

The squad's average age was a bit over 24. That projects to 27 in 2015, more or less the same as the 2011 (27.6) and 2007 (27.9) squads.

The three youngest -- 21-year-olds Joe Cowley, Dean Gericke, and Gearoid McDonald -- either hold British passports or are playing abroad. The 2011 edition notably comprised the second-highest total of imported players, behind Samoa.

Next month, the US meets Russia on November 9 and Tonga on November 17, both in remote Colwyn Bay, Wales, and then Romania on November 9.

Americas Rugby Championship Squad
Forwards: Derek Asbun (Rosslyn Park), Nick Civetta (New York AC), Cam Dolan (captain, Life Univ.), Eric Duechle (Belmont Shore), Zach Fenoglio (Glendale),Graham Harriman (Chicago Griffins), Kris Headlee (Life Univ.), Tom Katzfey (Life Univ.), Stan Moaalii (Glendale), Taylor Mokate (USA Rugby 7s), Tim Paulsen (Chicago Griffins), Tony Purpura (Boston), John Quill (Boston), Nick Wallace (St. Mary's College)
Backs: Chris Chapman (Sydney Univ.), Casey Clark (undeclared), Joe Cowley (Life Univ.), Miles Craigwell (Old Puget Sound Beach), Shaun Davies (Brigham Young Univ.), Cornelius Dirksen (Life Univ.), Dean Gericke (Arkansas State), Gearoid McDonald (Old Belvedere), Benny Mateialona (Life Univ.), Zac Mizell (Arkansas State), Zach Pangelinan (OMBAC), Jack Tracy (Belmont Shore)

Comments

[it's my ball and i will play with who i want]

It all starts up front. No scrum = no success. Make no mistake - scrummaging remains a cornerstone of the game. If it has not become crystal clear by now ... we need to learn how to scrummage. We will not get out of the starter blocks until we stabilize the scrum.

[College #7]

Bring back the Kiwi. He was chased off by EOS and we now have an Irish club coach running things.

The irony is that we had the opportunity to be a great scrummaging team - Mike Cron was in San Diego and taught the coaches and players. Go back, look at the video of what he was teaching and put it in place!

Everyone goes on about teaching from an early age and technique. But if we just recognized the three basic principles which could be adapted to our strengths, then our scrum could be improved over night.

[sad opera coming your way soon]

Wait until the competition for 7's vs XV's heats up for players. The safe bet is that Nigel and his disconnected Board will provide a similar amount of direction as they have in the past and neither team will be successful.

The Eagles 7's not qualifying for the Olympic Games will be a disaster. Tolkin will also end his term with the worse record in the history of the USAR. Not altogether the fault of Mags or Mike but they aren't likely to call bullsh*t on Melville either, so they cannot escape some of the blame.

All the while Kevin Roberts and his Board and Nigel Melville and his staff will be telling us how well they are doing for us. Taking as much credit as possible for things they have nothing to do with, while ducking accountability in the areas fully under their control.

[Tom Clayman]

Tolkin is over his skis boys. He made a real mess of this opportunity to develop new Eagles.

[Josh Macy]

It seems the mood is that high level collegiate rugby seems to be the best place to develop these budding young Eagles. Is that still true after the ARC? Is this model still in its infancy and just need time to develop?

[college #8]

@Macy
I think that was Tolkin's biggest mistake, although it may have been an unavoidable one because of the academic calendar. This team should have been at least 50% college players. Only Dolan, Cowley (who may as well not have been on the team given how little he played), Mizell and Gericke were there from the college ranks. Oh, and Davies too, I think technically is still enrolled at BYU. But where was JP Eloff? Seamus Kelly? Maddie Hughes? Ryan Roundy? Angus MacClellan? Also missing were guys like Noah Tarrant from the U-20s. Could be that all of these kids were unavailable. Or maybe Tolkin just doesn't rate them. But it seems to me that guys like Benny Matielona have missed their window and should not have been on this squad.

[EOS is looking good at this point]

The quality of the players was not the problem. The quality and leadership of the coaches was the problem. Tolkin made this about what player is going to stand up and show he has the attitude to play at the next level. I think he called it playing with an athletic chip on their shoulder. Then he didn't select a squad captain and you can guess what happen. All these young ambitious players with dreams of being called into Eagles' fall touring side played like a bunch of individuals and not like a team. Surprise! Coaching 101 when assembling a team is to make sure it is clear that they will be evaluated on how well they gel as a team and play to the systems put in place by the coaches and implemented by the nominated squad leader on the field at training and the field. Forget the fact that he didn't have a scrum coach and completely mismanaged selections. What national team coach has a front row player play in 3 different front row positions in 3 matches? I mean we are talking about a guy that doesn't have a clue.

[DPF]

Do USA Sevens know that they are saying the ACRL winner is going to the CRC?

http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6185-acrl-winners-have-two-goals.html

If so, then this is a first I think?

[ACRL]

Not a first, happened last year as well with both the ACRL and Big Ten 7s winners getting automatic invites to the CRC (see: NC State, Wisconsin).

[DPF]

Thanks for the clarification - I think its great that these better organized conferences are getting a CRC spot guaranteed for their winner.

[Josh Macy]

That answers a big criticism of the CRC. Glad to see they could add a play in where it also meets their needs as broadcasters.

[Mr Development]

here is the article on ranking number 2 in foreign born.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Born-here-to-play-there-RWC-2011-squads-chocker-with-Kiwis/tabid/1534/articleID/224687/Default.aspx

[Working Class Rugger]

Hold on, I remember reading many, many posts lamenting the the presence of a foreign coach and how a born and raised American would be 1000 times better and such. Now you have one and the results haven't automatically turned around after what 6 or 7 months, you lot are at it again. The grass sometimes isn't always greener now is it?

[EOS is looking good at this point]

Automatic turnaround was not was expected by me. I did however expect an American born coach that has enough coaching acumen to enlist the services of a scrum coach. Who prepares his team properly to compete and doesn't rely on trite slogans that goads individualism rather than teamwork like "plays with an athletic chip on his shoulder" and "looking for leaders" when there is no squad captain named the week before the first match when the team is assembled.

Let's be clear. This was a massive chance to develop and evaluate potential new Eagles and Tolkin threw the opportunity down the drain because he is over his head. Only bright note is that the costs were not as high as they would have been if Argentina was hosting.

This picture tells the story. Who is the leader of this squad? Nobody was named squad captain in the build up, after 3 loses you have our Head Coach watch whomever feels they want to step up address the team. Looks like it was Derek Asbun to extend platitudes to the confused young Eagles. Note Tolkin's body language, even he knows he's over his head.

https://twitter.com/LineoutCoach/status/259862071364177920/photo/1/large

[World Series Game 1]

You're an idiot. Tolkin is not in this picture. That is Casey Clark (reserve) standing in the background.

Like any good coach would, Tolkin probably said his piece, and allowed the players to talk about it themselves. They are the ones on the field after all.

I wish this blog would just go away. None of you are doing any good for rugby. Please stop.

[Delibelly]

The only way to reach a count suggesting that the US had the second highest number of imported players in the 2011 Rugby World Cup is to count the players born in American Samoa as "imported players." American Samoa is part of the US, so no reason to count US born players as "imported."

[Bye Bye]

@Delibelly

American Samoa now is an IRB recognized rugby union with full membership and part of the Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions. The Oceania region has a qualification process for Rugby World Cup 2015 beginning with the 2013 Oceania Cup. The theft of talent will most likely end for the Eagles.

[The word "theft" is asinine]

Now. Not then, now.

Also, it's not necessarily going to dry up; players who are American Samoa eligible should still be USA eligible, right? Until the RWC expands to 24 teams, American Samoa won't come close to qualifying, so some of them surely choose to play for the Eagles just to be part of the RWC.

[winless]

Good point, lets argue the guys that were born on a distant Polynesian island as ours and ignore the "winless" part. The Eagles are in decline and have been since Nigel Melville took over.

[Don't be silly]

Touche'. Because we can only discuss one thing at once. Shit, why are we even talking about rugby when our economy is in such awful shape and the most important election EVER (until the next one) is less than two weeks away?

[lv_rugger]

Hayden Smith to the active roster this weekend for the Jets!

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/10/27/jets-add-australian-rugby-player-to-53-man-roster-cut-jason-hill/

[I approve this message]

DBS,

Changing the comment thread in an attempt to provide political cover to the administration for their track record of incompetence, is in season, go for it.

[Where's my tinfoil hat?]

Haha...ok, a few comments on a minor blog is a big conspiracy. I hope you can sleep nights despite the noise of the black helicopters over your house.