On Saturday in Montevideo the US Eagles and Uruguay play the first of two games which carry the prize of a place at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, in England. On form and history and given the relative strength of the two squads – and the decisive second game being in Atlanta, next weekend – victory should be relatively straightforward for the American team.
Of course, this being rugby union – and the international game at that – nothing is ever so straightforward as it seems. For one thing, the losers on aggregate score over the two games will not be out of contention. A final chance to secure a place at the finals exists, through a repechage system which would likely pitch the loser against Russia for the very last place at the table. And here one alarm bell rings: Uruguay’s only win over the US in 12 meetings came in 2002 and sent the Eagles into the repechage.
The Eagles should win. After an autumn that saw the Maori All Blacks pushed in Philadelphia and Georgia and Russia beaten on foreign shores, and with an increasingly impressive array of professional talent present for duty, optimism surrounds the US team.
Furthermore, in October an Eagles XV without any of its professionals met a more or less to strength Uruguay team in Canada, at the Americas Rugby Championship, and won 20-8, three tries to one. And finally, if it’s omens you’re after, Uruguay stood in the way last time round, in 2009. The Eagles won 27-22 in Montevideo and 27-6 in Florida and took their place in New Zealand.
The US are now much stronger. In contrast, Uruguay’s star player, the Castres flanker or lock Rodrigo Capó Ortega, has not played in national colours for some time and their only other pro at anything approaching the top level is the Mont de Marsan scrum-half AgustÃn Ormaechea. They are, by the admission of their own if not their own admission, not expecting to win.
Given all that, for the Eagles a slot in Pool B in 2015 (alongside South Africa, Samoa, Scotland and in all probability Japan, the last three beatable should all knowns, a few unknowns and quite possibly a couple of known unknowns fall the USA’s way) surely awaits.
Naturally, not a single US player or coach will admit as much about the Uruguay game, let alone consider such wildly optimistic ideas about the path to a World Cup quarter-final. They are, however, a little more forthcoming about their ongoing development under head coach Mike Tolkin.
“We’re certainly making strides,” said the forwards coach, Justin Fitzpatrick, this week from the team’s Florida training base, “with more and more of our athletes gaining professional contracts in good environments overseas.
“There’s no doubt that player depth is increasing in nearly all positions and especially in the forwards. With greater depth and quality comes greater competition, which pushes the individual and collection to strive harder.”
So what do the Eagles expect in Uruguay?
“There’s no doubt that we are in for a battle royale. They have a strong group of forwards and our athletes will need to be mentally and physically on the money.”
So far, so on message, particularly when Los Teros – it’s a smaller and somewhat less ferocious bird than the American Eagle – are coached by Pablo Lemoine, a gigantic prop who made his name at the World Cups of 1999 and 2003 and played for clubs in England and France. If nothing else, the Uruguayans will put up a ferocious fight.
Still, when considering the pack he oversees – from Northampton’s Samu Manoa and Cam Dolan in the back five up to Titi Lamositele, a 19-year-old tighthead now at Saracens – Fitzpatrick, a former Ulster and Ireland prop who also played for Castres, must surely see a unit not just to deal with the Uruguayans but to make life uncomfortable for a fair few major nations.
“We have,” he says, ever the diplomat, “I believe, growing strength across many if not quite all positions in the team, and are growing some really heathy competition for starting and squad berths.”
For example?
“It’s great to welcome back someone like Hayden Smith. He has been a proven performer for the USA in the past but adds into that mix a wealth of experience from both professional European rugby but also from the NFL.”
Fitzpatrick is referring to a kind of player Uruguay and many other nations would struggle to field – a 28-year-old Australian-born basketball prodigy who moved to the States on a scholarship, took up rugby, went to the UK to join Saracens, impressed for the Eagles at the 2011 World Cup, switched sports for a spell as a New York Jets tight end and then returned for another crack with club and country. It’s an impressive – and unique – CV and it boosts the stock of locks very nicely.
Still, the Eagles are not just about their overseas professionals. For every Saracen (or Leicester Tiger, in the wing Blaine Scully’s case, or NTT Shining Arc (Japan-based captain and flanker Todd Clever) or even pink-clad Parisian flâneur, if it would ever be permissable so to refer to the hulking Stade Français lock Scott LaValla) it seems there is now a highly promising local lad.
Nick Wallace of the USA is tackled by Andrey Garbuzov of Russia. Photograph: Steve Bardens/Getty Images
Take, for example, the James Bay loosehead prop Nick Wallace, “someone that had a strong fall”, in Fitzpatrick’s words, and for whom “the challenge is to kick on in a position where other players are looking for their shot”.
Wallace, who was once a defensive lineman at Western Washington University, performed wonders in the Maori game, in which a young Eagles eight threw themselves head first at anything in all black for 80 exhilarating minutes. He then backed it up in Europe, to the extent of scoring a startling 40-yard try in the one-point win over Georgia.
Others did likewise: the University of California centre Seamus Kelly and Olympic Club wing Tim Maupin, for example, will travel to south America in full expectation of contributing to the cause. The New York Athletic Club full-back or fly-half Adam Siddall, another to shine in the fall, is ruled out by the after-effects of a concussion but another No10, Toby L’Estrange, is available, in his case boosted by a short-term deal with London Welsh.
This week has also been about integrating into camp all those overseas pros, a process which Fitzpatrick relishes.
“It’s great to welcome back the players who are playing professionally overseas,” he says, “especially those [L"Estrange, for example] that are new to that environment. While great strides are being made in a number of regions and programs around the country, you cannot replicate that full-time professional environment that a growing number of our athletes are rightfully experiencing.”
And therein lies the rub. The US is selecting from a deepening pool of talent. Not that Fitzpatrick, Tolkin or any of the players would ever be so presumptuous as to agree, but by the end of the second game against Uruguay, at the Kennesaw State University’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium next Saturday, expect the Eagles to have booked their tickets to England.
Article source: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/ru-headlines/rugby-union-scarbrough-s-warning-for-england-ahead-of-all-blacks-1-6240311
Rugby World Cup: Uruguay"s Teros hold few terrors for improving Eagles
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