Nihil novī sub sōle Aquilarum

USA Eagles fans have been here before - on the brink of missing a Rugby World Cup, facing a set of repechage opponents that the Eagles SHOULD defeat. What I mean is that we look at the list of possible opponents - the winner of Kenya vs. Portugal, then Tonga vs. Hong Kong - and we know that we should thrash these teams.  

But, right now, we're not feeling like the Eagles deserve to be in the repechage. 

Repechage - a French word that means "to fish out" or "to rescue." 

OUCH. That hurts. The Eagles have to compete for the "rescued slot" against teams lower in the WR men's rankings and potentially against a Tongan team that we have not defeated ONCE in ten matches and that was four matches ago!  

Repechage, FFS. I don't even know how to express my disgust about this "opportunity" properly. All I know is that the Eagles need to soar into the Autumn of 2022 ready to do battle and put a mighty thrashing on all opponents. 

The Eagles did not thrash Canada or Chile. They didn't perform like they deserved to even look at the Americas 1 slot.

Makes no bones about it, until WR next changes the RWC qualifying system, Americas 1 is the expectation, always. The USA Eagles should always be performing better than Canada and any RAN or South American NT (other than Argentina until that becomes the next goal).

I read the Facebook posts and comments of my own, Justin Hickey, Doug Wilkey, Americas Rugby News, Bernie Mend Ar, USA Rugby (article), USA Rugby (final score), World Rugby, Rugby World Magazine, and many others. 

Bottom Line? We're all disappointed, pissed off, angry, mad as hell about this. 

Some of us are just talking out of our ass (defo me). Others have a lot of skin in the game at various places (also & moreso, defo me). We all feel hard done by and rightfully so. 

There's a lot of "blame, shame, and punish" mentality going on. I tried that years ago when it seemed justified. I think we were doing the right things at the time, but we did not do ALL of the right things. 

I decided to help create, develop, and maintain one solution to the problem here in Houston. We did that with Rugby HTX (the senior academy side for the Houston SaberCats) and have now put that solution in much more experienced hands. I've always thought that player academies MUST always be developing coaches, referees, and players. We did that, too. 

Rugby HTX applied the be part of the USA NT Pathway academies, but I stepped aside to deal with increasing demands from my lucrative day-job before that application was ever answered (if it was).

When I left, Rugby HTX had produced >30 L200 certified coaches, one L300 coach who is under 23yo (and who will end up being a phenomenal coach), several coaches to local youth and HS local clubs, 5-6 certified referees (and one who will be on the national and international 7s panel soon enough), several upskilled players to local clubs, and players selected to MLR & PR7s teams, the USA Rugby South Panthers, a couple of RAN NTs, and the USA Maccabi squad. 

No Eagles caps, yet. But plenty of rugby players vying for playing time against professional players who are Eagles.

That's only ONE of the many solutions needed, though. I am so happy that MLR owners are beginning to see the value of academy sides. The expense is reasonable for the return. 

If you read the comments in the FB posts shared above, in the r/USARugby subreddit, on the old Tier 2/3 Rugby forums, on Twitter, etc., you will see hundreds of folks have identified the problems with the men's Eagles. Maybe 100 or so have presented viable and variable solutions. And maybe a quarter of those possess the wherewithal to put their solutions into action.

I say that to say this...

Get your butts out there and either implement your solution or help others implement theirs. 

Read that in ALL CAPS as if I am shouting it at you.

Several of you are already doing this. I applaud and salute you. If you ever just need a sounding board or someone to talk to about your ideas who will support you without judgement, I am here for you.

Same applies to you who are just now getting off your butts and doing something top improve USA Rugby the way you see fit. Need a sounding board, I will listen. 

But, we've got to do something and more of that something to ensure "more people are playing better rugby" (nod to Kirk Tate).

Right now, I am helping those in my coaching tree become better at their craft (not gonna lie, I love these former players and an damn proud of all of them). If you've been coaching for over a decade, you probably can look at your coaching tree and identify the branches. When you get to 2-3 decades of coaching, you begin to see the shade your coaching tree is providing. It's a damn good feeling.

Now, tell me (all of us) what solution you are implementing and how it will directly or indirectly improve the Eagles (W & M, 7s & XVs) or any of the U23/U20/U18 squads. 

We want to know about all of the solutions. Those forward-facing solutions will get the Eagles into the Top 5 dominance we all think they should be occupying.