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American rugby: 'battleship in dry dock'

Over at Rugby Wrap Up, Jake Frechette has struck a blow for clarity, the more valuable as TV programming expands.

Decrying sloppy descriptions of 'crossover' players, the distinction between USA Rugby and rugby in the USA, and other muddles, Frechette has simultaneously provided a positive alternative to the worst analogy in our game -- America as 'sleeping giant'.

Better to consider the country 'a battleship in dry dock', he writes. 'The thing is still be constructed, work is being done, and when it sails it will be dangerous. How dangerous will depend on how well it is constructed'.

Bravo!

Frechette's main target is the crossover athlete, objectionable because nearly every American athlete has previously played another sport.

Once intended to denote elite-level athletes who would become international game-changers inside 18 or so months -- Dan Lyle's going from summer 7s while training for a 1993 NFL tryout to a man-of-the-match debut at Lansdowne Road in fall 1994 --  the term has been pounded into mush, often by American TV commentators. 

'The idea that one enterprise will prepare us for other, sometimes later, enterprises is true in all sorts of situations, athletic and otherwise', he writes. The point is taken. Here is the payload:

The label is most likely to be applied to rugby players from Tier 2 or Tier 3 nations and de-emphasizes their commitment to rugby and rugby skills. If they succeed in rugby, it is because of something they learned somewhere else.

Just so. US rugby may never be rid of Commonwealth condescension. The only effective defense is clear, self-defined identity. Almost 180 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson made the same point about American culture.

Weekly rugby reaches American TV

Weekly rugby is at last coming to American television, maybe just as TV begins to bow out.

NBC's obtaining rights to the English Aviva Premiership fulfills longstanding hopes of top-flight rugby union reaching the US sporting public. In a three-year pact beginning fall 2016 -- previewed this weekend in conjunction with the London Irish-Saracens match in Harrison, New Jersey -- the Peacock network could screen as many as 24 games per season, reaching up to 85 million households.

The pact culminates nearly a decade of NBC's nurturing rugby content. It also foreshadows the next era, in which even mainstream sports are consumed via 'over the top', or or Internet-delivered, programming.

As many as 50 games could be shown via NBC's online channels. The broadcaster also intends to create a rugby studio at its Stamford, Conn., headquarters to generate additional programming, Sports Business Daily reported.

Live sports competition is the primary reason stopping subscribers from abandoning cable and satellite TV subscriptions in favor or Netflix and similar competitors, a trend known as cutting the cord. In case that firewall is insufficient, NBC, ESPN, and others have been exploring the new era with niche programming.

The broadcaster has certainly been foresighted as regards rugby. 

Initially gambling on the USA 7s, at a time when Fox Sports was America's leading network, NBC partnered with United World Sports (owner of the USA 7s tournament) in creating the College Rugby Championship 7s tournament and the Varsity Cup 15s competition, while also obtaining rights to the World Cup. Each move was intended to complement NBC's crown jewel, the Olympic Games, which newly includes 7-a-side competition. 

To American rugby fans, NBC has clearly become the primary broadcaster, at a time when overseas competition has become more accessible.

The Premiership too looks the far-sighted player, not only catching up the Pro12, which has been available on satellite provider DirecTV, but also extending the commercial presence of its partners into a new market.

Cal 27 St. Mary’s 14 (halftime: Cal 10-0)

(Moraga, Calif.) Saturday’s match between two of the college game’s perennial top five masked the best of St. Mary’s while revealing something more of Cal.

Cutting to the chase, the visitors fell behind 14-10 just before the hour, but stayed with the plan to run out 27-14 winners, five tries to two.

Taking their first lead through a penalty try, the Gaels seemed to play much as they might have any other Saturday. Atrocious weather stymied their efforts.

Whereas the Bears, resolutely kicking behind the SMC’s line, measured the occasion well. Amid soggy footing and second-half downpours, there was no way for the counterattack through Cal's pursuit, spread four, five, and sometimes six players across.

To be sure, both sides made any number of errors. The hosts may have enjoyed the balance of prime scoring opportunities. At least three superb chances misfired at the touchline: rainy weather indeed.

By contrast, in one of the many elaborations which helps Cal stay on top, the Bears manned both sidelines with a reservist carrying a towel for drying the ball. Their lineouts, notably in their own end, were adequate.

Match conditions are rarely perfect but generally anticipable. The past decade we have heard much about the benefits of better training. Saturday evidenced the effects of planning.

Cal 27 St. Mary’s 14 (halftime: Cal 10-0)

California
Tries: Evan Coleman (2), Harry Adolphus, George Vrame, Nicklas Boyer
Conversion: Russell Webb

St. Mary’s 
Tries: Dylan Audsley, penalty
Conversions: Dylan Audsley (2)

Referee: Pete Smith (Northern California)
Attendance: 800 (estimated)

SFGG Rhinos 39 Olympic Club 17 (halftime: SFGG 13-10)

(San Francisco) Center Pila Huihui's pair of tries paced the SFGG Rhinos to a workmanlike 39-17 win over the Olympic Club Saturday at Sheeran Field.

The center's 37th-minute score, culminating the Rhinos' best first-half sequence, brought the hosts to within 10-8 while seeming to drain the last of O Club's early impetus. The increasingly ragged visitors then conceded a Luke Watson injury-time try, going to the break of a game they should have been winning down by 3.

Huihui, who did not figure in last week's late home loss to Glendale, struck again 10 minutes into the second stanza, picking up from dummy half and going straight through defense to give SFGG a 20-10 edge.

At 55 minutes, lock Brendan Daly's short-range, converted try all but put the game out of reach.

O Club had jumped to 10-3 lead after 13 minutes through a Keegan Engelbrecht penalty goal and a Jared Braun try, launched from a stolen lineout inside SFGG's 25. But with the Rhinos conceding a a 5-2 penalty count in the opening 25 minutes, the visitors ought to have put more points on the board. Inaccurate setpieces throttled their cause.

Finding their trademark counterattack mostly contained, SFGG ultimately took charge by playing a vertical game.

Braun's second try, coming from broken play at 62 minutes, was followed by touchdowns from Tai Enosa and substitute Houston Noema, who intercepted in injury time.

In Sao Paulo, the US fell to Brazil 23-21 on a last-second penalty goal. The stunning result brings a sudden end to first-year coach John Mitchell's honeymoon.

SFGG Rhinos 39 Olympic Club 17 (halftime: SFGG 13-10)

SFGG Rhinos
Tries: Pila Huihui (2), Luke Watson, Brendan Daly, Tai Enosa, Houston Noema
Conversions: Adrian Curry (2), Brendan Daly
Penalty: Adrian Curry

Olympic Club
Tries: Jared Braun (2)
Conversion: Keegan Engelbrecht (2)
Penalty: Keegan Engelbrecht

Referee: Josh Houston (Chicago)
Attendance: 300 (estimated)

Super Rugby's Japanese expansion matters to the US

by Matt McIlraith

In Japan, Fukanō [不可能] is the word for impossible.

It might soon be replaced in the local vocabulary by the name ‘Sunwolves’.

For while over-enthusiastic Anglo-Saxon commentators were quick to somewhat patronizingly dress up Japan’s Rugby World Cup win over South Africa as a ‘miracle’, in truth it will be a proper miracle if the Sunwolves win even a single game of their debut Super Rugby season.

As the U.S. already knew before last year’s Rugby World Cup, and the world pretty quickly discovered, Japan had a good team. Filled with either existing Super Rugby players, or those richly experienced by the country’s vastly improved local league, Japan always looked capable of an upset, albeit most would have picked Scotland, rather than South Africa, as their likely pool victims.

Critically, the Japanese were well prepared, having built up for the tournament over a four-year stretch. The country’s Super Rugby entry is a polar opposite in both appearance and design.

Thrown together at the last minute, with a Kiwi coach in Mark Hammett of limited and unsuccessful experience who doesn’t speak Japanese, and has never coached or played in the country, the recipe couldn’t be more wrong if they tried.

The top Japanese players know the score: most of the country’s best players will feature in Super Rugby, but have signed on for other teams. This in itself says a lot.

It is a shame that the attempt to put a competent team together has been so ham-fisted as the expected mediocrity of the Sunwolves will not provide an accurate reflection as to the real state of the Japanese game.

The unflattering scoreboard balance sheet that is anticipated will, however, provide a cutting assessment of the relative organizational capabilities (or lack thereof) of the Japanese Rugby Union.

Nothing tampers with a team’s ability to perform more quickly than disorganization or poor performance off the field. In business, it gets you fired. In sport, it means you lose, and then you get fired!

It is no coincidence that successful teams almost universally have a well-managed unit backing them behind the scenes.

The JRFU aside, SANZAAR itself can’t shirk its share of the blame for this impending disaster. It countenanced Super Rugby expansion before it was realistically ready, and then made it worse by not performing due diligence prior to accepting the Japanese entry.

The Southern Hemisphere countries got greedy. As a result, they are going to reap what they’ve sewn, in all probability damaging their strong Super Rugby brand with a flood of uncompetitive matches, while also quickly undoing the favorable global perception of the Japanese game that had only just been created.

Through no fault of its own, the collateral damage could yet impact on the U.S. as well.

The increasingly frequent visits of the New Zealand, South African, and Australian rugby teams to American soil in recent years are not coincidental. All are cash-making ventures, but also on-the-ground assessments, to see whether the States could realistically provide Super Rugby’s next stop, and preferably before Northern Hemisphere club barons start laying down markers of their own.

The same formula was applied in Japan. But while the one-off Bledisloe Cup match of 2009, and a New Zealand-Japan Test of a few years later, both bombed on most counts, self-indulgence got the better of SANZAAR. It ignored its own advice.

But an even more public humiliation, in the shape of a woefully disorganized and unsuccessful Japanese team, may force even the most bombastic among the alliance’s four-way membership to tread more warily on the expansion front.

And with the U.S. already having been stated as their next target, a not so super Sunwolves has significant ramifications for the game in the States too!

Matt McIlraith has been Communications director for the Crusaders, New Zealand, and Australia. Previously he was Managing Editor of New Zealand Rugby News.

Matt McIlraith has been Communications director for the Crusaders, New Zealand, and Australia. Previously he was Managing Editor of New Zealand Rugby News.

Clever, Eloff join elite crew but US squad misses out

Skipper Todd Clever and and debutant JP Eloff joined elite company in Saturday's Canada match, but the match squad missed out on first-of-a-kind honors.

Clever, who scored three tries in eight minutes, becomes the ninth Eagle to record a hat trick -- and the only forward.

Gary Hein was first, against Tunisia in May 1987, a World Cup warmup game. Blaine Scully was the most recent, against Japan in June 2014.

Vaea Anitoni and Brian Hightower each scored 4 tries in a test. Anitoni victimized Japan in July of 1996, 11 months before Hightower took a turn lighting up the Brave Blossoms. Then the incomprable Anitoni struck against Portugal, dotting down four times in April of 1998. 

Separately, Eloff and his brother Phillip, a center, became the eighth pair of brothers to play for the USA. 

The other sibling pairings are John and Whitt Everett; Bill and Bob LeClerc; Ata and Nese Malifa; Tim and Chris O'Brien; Andrew, Roland, and Shalom Suniula (the only trio); Brian and Kevin Swords; and Alipate and Seta Tuilevuka. 

Since 1976, more than 400 athletes have represented America in 15s. The Eloffs' span of 15 years is the greatest diiference between debuts.

On a more distressing note, USARFU cost the national team an unprecendented third consecutive Can-Am Trophy win by failing to so designate the match beforehand.

The oversight cost the Clever XV a place in history: the Eagles have never won three consecutive Can-Am games.

As the host and the holder, the American union held the right to nominate the Austin contest. Officials were 'too busy' to attend to the simple formality, according to people familiar with the matter.

There are no plans to play Canada again this year. USARFU officials did not respond to request for comment.

Hat Trick Eagles
Gary Hein	Tunisia	May 1987
Chris O'Brien	Uruguay	May 1989
Vaea Anitoni (4)	Japan	July 1996
Brian Hightower (4)	Japan	June 1997
Veal Anitoni (4)	Portugal	April 1998
Kain Cross	Japan	May 2003
Philip Eloff	Barbados	July 2006
Jeff Hullinger	Uruguay	September 2006
Blaine Scully	Japan	June 2014
Todd Clever	Canada	February 2016

United States 30 Canada 22 (halftime: Canada 12-10)

Todd Clever's natural hat trick propelled the US past Canada 30-22 Saturday in Austin, a game that did not count in the Can-Am Series.

Made in the last half hour, the comeback win confirmed the impression of John Mitchell's fast start. The Eagles have scored eight tries in two Americas Rugby Championship matches, drawing with Argentina's third string and toppling a Maple Leaf lineup somewhat closer to Canada's best XV.

'Our style of football leads us to opportunities ... so scoring four tries is available to us on every occasion if we want it', the first-year coach was quoted in a press release.

The 8-point margin proved precisely the difference predicted by World Rugby's February 7 rankings, with the US placed 16th at 68.66 points and Canada 19th on 63.62; home-field advantage is adjudged a 3-point edge. Argentina was 5th, at 82.59. As of this morning, the US gained .2 points and Canada surrendered the same.

The Eagles trailed 12-10 at half and 15-10 with 30 minutes to go, playing an error-filled game, when a counterattack initiated by wing Kingsley McGowan and a subsequent injury stoppage triggered a turnaround. Though the play was called back, the US seemed to realize it could readily advance the ball and so played much of the next 20 minutes deep in the Canadian end.

Three times in eight minutes Clever scored from well-constructed lineout mauls. Alhough second came with the Maple Leafs shorthanded, Canada really had no answer for the US forwards.

Still, a broken-play try by center Duncan Maguire pulled the visitors to an uncomfortably close 27-22, before replacement halfback Niku Kruger's penalty goal closed out the game.

The 33-year-old Clever, whom Mitchell restored to the captaincy, becomes the seventh Eagle to score three times in a test. Blaine Scully did it last, against Japan in June 2014.

Never before have 14 US players earned their first international in a single game (save for America's first test in 1976). The previous record was Peter Thorburn's 11 in 2006, when USARFU awarded caps against Ireland 'A' in a Churchill Cup match. 

In the curtain raiser, Ben Cima goaled from behind the halfway line with time up on the clock, lifting USA Under 20 to a 19-18 win over Canada and qualifying for America for World Rugby's second-division age-grade championship.

United States 30 Canada 22 (halftime: Canada 12-10)

USA
Tries: Todd Clever (3), Chad London
Conversions: James Bird, Chad Krueger
Penalties: James Bird, Chad Krueger

Jake Anderson*; Luke Hume, Chad London, Lemoto Filikitonga* (Mike Garrity*), Kingsley McGowan*; James Bird* (JP Eloff*), Mike Te'o* (Niku Kruger); Eric Fry (James Hilterbrand*), Mike Sosene-Feagai* (Joe Taufete'e), Chris Baumann (Olive Kilifi), Brodie Orth*, Ben Landry* (Alec Gletzer*), Nate Brakeley*, Todd Clever (captain), David Tameilau*

* first international match

 

Canada

Try: Duncan Maguire

Conversion: Andrew Ferguson

Penalties: Gordon McRorie (5)

 

Pat Parfrey; Phil MacKenzie, Mozac Samson (Duncan Maguire), Nick Blevins, Dan Moor; Gradyn Bowd, Gordon McRorie (Andrew Ferguson); Hubert Buydens (captain, Djustice Sears-Duru), Ray Barkwill, Jake Ilnicki, Paul Ciulini, Callum Morrison (Liam Chisholm), Lucas Rumball (Kyle Baille), Allistair Clark, Clay Panga

 

Referee: JH Sylvestre (Argentina)

Attendance: 7,415

Mitchell aims in spotlight as Clever restored

Game two infrequently says much about a new coach, yet tomorrow's Can-Am carries some suspense.

On the heels of a 35-all draw with Argentina XV, a recast US team may bring out John Mitchell's pursuit of a more accurate offense. Ten of the Eagle XV win their first caps, while six make their initial Americas Rugby Championship start.

Simultaneously, the New Zealander has restored Todd Clever to the captaincy, seven months after the USA's most-capped flanker was controversially dropped. And there's a three-game Canadian winning streak on the line, perhaps Mike Tolkin's signature achievement.

'We're not in a position where we know what our number-one team is,' Mitchell said in a prepared statement. 'It's a matter of developing the depth and making sure we get to see everyone under pressure'.

Clever's return surmounts clashing personalities. Although no one has skippered the Eagles more often, he's struggled to gain traction with referees. If the US is to be a more precise team, it will require a go-between who can adapt team tactics to match-day officiating and vice versa.

Despite the Newcastle man's presence, the back five is inexperienced, as is the halfback pairing. Generally speaking, positions four through ten determine whether a team gets the ball and how it's used.

Canada, coming of a 33-17 home over Uruguay, have made only one change to their Austin, Texas, lineup. Like the US, the Maple Leafs are essentially a domestic group, the back five rookies, and there is a bit more experience in the backline.

A Can-Am win would all but qualify the ARC as successful. Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay don't compare with America's first two opponents and should be handled. 

United States vs Canada
Jake Anderson (Olympic Club); Luke Hume (Old Blue), Chad London (Glendale Raptors), Lemoto Filikitonga (Metropolis), Kingsley McGowan (Trinity College); James Bird (Old Blue), Mike Te'o (USA 7s); Eric Fry (Newcastle), Mike Sosene-Feagai (Belmont Shore), Chris Baumann (Austin), Brodie Orth (Kansas City Blues), Ben Landry (Seattle Saracens), Nate Brakeley (undeclared), Todd Clever (captain, Newcastle), David Tameilau (Life West)
Reserves: Joseph Taufete'e (Belmont Shore), Olive Kilifi (Seattle Saracens), James Hilterbrand (undeclared), Patrick Blair (USA 7s), Alec Gletzer (Olympic Club); Niku Kruger (Glendale Raptors), JP Eloff (Chicago Lions), Mike Garrity (Seattle Saracens)

US sets scoring record in Argentine match

Saturday's 35-all draw with Argentina XV set a new standard for scoring against the South Americans, but extended a distressing habit of conceding late scores.

The old mark was set in a 2005 Churchill Cup game, when a Kort Schubert-led US ran Argentina XV 34-30 in Edmonton, losing in the final moments. 

In tests, Chris Lippert's 1996 outfit dropped a 29-26 thriller during the Pan American Championship in Ottawa. America's best home result against the Pumas is a 28-22 loss by a Kevin Swords XV during a World Cup qualifier played in 1994 in Long Beach.

Upon his hiring last month, John Mitchell spoke of molding an Eagle offense with a 'higher probability' of scoring. Yet however encouraging the Houston offense, no coach willl look fondly on a shorthanded, game-tying touchdown with less than 3 minutes to go.

Argentina also was significantly younger and less experienced. For a general sense of the disparity, the 4 American tries were scored by players with 149 internationals to their name, while the 5 Argentine tallies came from players with just 26 caps. But the New Zealand-born head man made clear at the outset he wanted the European pros in camp so as to engage in the team's culture.

A more interesting question is whether the match reflects an immediate change of course -- including a debut captain in Blaine Scully -- or a recovery from last fall's winless World Cup. Last spring, Mike Tolkin's troops played an Argentine XV 29-23 in Salta before posting a solid Pacific Rim tournament. Might the veterans be coming back to life?

In the second week of the Americas Rugby Championship, with several having returned to their paycheck clubs, the squad's talking points regard the pressures of the Can-Am rivalry. After losing 11 of 12 games from 2006-2013, the US has captured the last 3 matches, including a record-high 41-23 win last August in Ottawa.

Coaching storylines to the fore of Six Nations too

by Matt McIlraith

A joke did the Southern Hemisphere rounds after the World Cup: ‘They’re thinking of bringing a plate competition into the tournament for the teams that don’t make the semifinals. It’s called the Six Nations!’

While the humor reflected the spectacular failure of Europe’s best, Southern Hemisphere smugness shouldn’t distract from the significance of this month’s Six Nations, as the run to Japan 2019 begins.

Of the combatants, in what shapes as one of the most intriguing championships in recent memory, England arguably has the most at stake. Title-less since 2011, the decision to turn to Australia for its coach carries with it huge risk, intensified even further by the move to install serial hothead Dylan Hartley as captain.

Eddie Jones has long polarized, and is the most un-English of choices RFU heavies Bill Beaumont and Ian Ritchie could have made. Notoriously difficult to work with, which led to a number of the backroom team bailing during his Wallaby days, Jones was rumored to be at odds with players prior to departing Tokyo.

This creates the potential irony that the outcome which ultimately landed Jones the job – Japan’s shock win over South Africa – might not have been the personal triumph for England’s new coach it has been portrayed as since his appointment.

Regardless of the whys and wherefores, the RFU painted itself into a corner when insisting on a recruit boasting past international experience. It ruled out local aspirants, and left little choice once it became apparent that Jones and his equally polarizing South African counterpart Jake White (alongside the USA choice John Mitchell), were the only options on a surprisingly slim menu.

So the RFU has a lot at stake with Jones.

If the Six Nations goes badly, Southern Hemisphere scribes will be forgiven for thinking that as far as humor goes, the English game is a gift that keeps on giving.

While England’s fortunes will inevitably provide the major storyline, the progress of France under new coach Guy Noves is equally significant as far as the next World Cup is concerned. An old school disciple, it was thought Noves was too strong a personality to ever get the national job, while the man himself seemed content collecting club trophies from his Toulouse power base.

But these are desperate times for Les Bleus. Results suggest the players never took to his predecessor Phillippe Saint-Andre, with rumors abounding through his tenure that discord was rife. Go back a coach, and the same was said of Saint-Andre’s immediate predecessor, Marc Lievremont.

So now the French have gone for Noves, a straight out coach rather than politician, and a practioner of tough love. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Then there’s Ireland, two-time winners, but seemingly headed down the hill, performance-wise, following an underwhelming World Cup. Joe Schmidt did a great job guiding an experienced group to the next level. Does he now have the acumen to mastermind a successful rebuild, which might put him in poll position to eventually move on to coach his native New Zealand?

The All Black job is also undoubtedly in the long-term sights of two other Kiwis, Scotland coach Vern Cotter and Wales’ nine-year boss, Warren Gatland.

With an experienced and settled line-up, on the back of a passable World Cup quarterfinal finish, Wales should start favorites. It is not a state from which they traditionally excel.

The tournament was still a party of five the last time Scotland won it, in 1999.

This puts the expectations of last year’s wooden spooners into perspective, but having been robbed of a World Cup semifinal by an inexcusable refereeing howler from Craig Joubert, Cotter’s men may now boast the belief to cause an upset or two.

Scotland will be a handful at home first up for Jones and company: how many Englishmen are comfortable on the other side of Hadrian’s Wall?

Six Nations comfort is something Italy has never had. It’s hard to see that changing this time around, although the Azurri could always set their sights on heaping embarrassment on the other non-quarterfinalist among the Six Nations band.

Whatever happens, it should make for a good watch. Over to you, Mr. Jones!

Matt McIlraith has been Communications director for the Crusaders, New Zealand, and Australia. Previously he was Managing Editor of New Zealand Rugby News.