‘We are under no illusions of how far we have to go’
US coach Gary Gold is realistic about his side’s chances against England, writes Daniel Schofield
If Eddie Jones’s comment that England would be facing “15 Donald Trumps” when they play the United States tomorrow raised eyebrows within the American camp then at least he did not label them a “sleeping giant”. Of all the lazy cliches applied to American rugby – and there are many – this is the one that is guaranteed to get the backs up of the Eagles’ players and coaches. “We are not sleeping, we are all working really hard,” Blaine Scully, the US captain, says pointedly.
The idea still retains appeal partly because of the sheer size of the US as a country and its corresponding potential athlete and commercial base. Yet as Gary Gold, the US head coach, says, just because there are oceans of money swishing around elite basketball, American football and baseball, it does not mean any of that drips down to rugby.
“The problem is that the giant is broke,” Gold says. “He will continue to sleep until someone puts a wad of money in his pocket. That’s the challenge that USA Rugby have got. We are not necessarily losing money, we just can’t spend anything. It would be unheard of for the England, New Zealand and South Africa players to be told: play for your country, but just do it for honour and we give you £100 a day.”
The reality of that situation has not prevented an unseemly rush from other nations to stage matches in the US, convinced that they can strike gold just by taking a few staged pictures outside local landmarks and schools. The nadir came in last year’s Wales v South Africa match in Washington DC.
“It was just a useless exercise,” Gold says. “It didn’t benefit anyone. It certainly didn’t benefit USA Rugby. There was a bureaucrat somewhere who thought it would be a good idea, but if both countries thought there was a massive pot of money to be gained from playing here then they were mistaken.”
Still, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. Rugby is said to be the fastest-growing team sport in the US. This will also be the first World Cup since the advent of Major League Rugby, which has now grown to 12 teams and features overseas players such as Ben Foden, Steffon Armitage and Mathieu Bastareaud. More significantly, it provides a platform for domestic players to play in a professional league. Whereas previous US World Cup squads would be made up of a handful of European-based professionals and a larger cohort of semiprofessionals, now the entire squad are full time. “That makes a massive difference,” Gold says.
Yet there is a huge jump from the level of the MLR to Premiership and Super Rugby standards. As Gold says: “If I were to overnight replicate the intensity that the All Blacks play at, then all our players would break because we are not conditioned to be able to do that. It is a slow burn.”
Yet the Eagles are slowly starting to take flight. Since replacing John Mitchell – the current England defence coach, in 2017 – Gold won his first nine fixtures, including a 30-29 win over Scotland, their first victory against a tier-one team. This year they have beaten Samoa and Canada.
“Gary has been a great fit for us,” Scully said. “He’s an excellent communicator with a clear idea of how we can be successful. He has committed to us as a team and believes in us as a group. That’s pretty powerful.”
Gold, who has coached in the Premiership with London Irish, Newcastle, Bath and most recently Worcester, has been similarly impressed by the professionalism of the players.
“I have been involved with national teams before and you are having to beg the players to take notes,” Gold said. “In America, it is completely different. They lap up the information and take on board as much as possible. They are so hungry to learn.”
He has also adapted some of his methods to incorporate American reference points. Defence sessions are known as “Ray Days” in relation to the former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. “A lot of the guys relate to American football as a sport and understand it is a game of huge intensity,” Gold says. “They need to understand the sacrifices that Ray Lewis needed to make in
‘There are elements of our game where I absolutely know we cannot live with England’
order to become the hero he was. You have to get the players to understand how much hard work there is to do, but you also want them to have fun.
Gold’s team to face England contains plenty of Premiership experience in the form of Scully, who is unattached after spells with Cardiff Blues and Leicester, Harlequins centre Paul Lasike, Saracens prop Titi Lamositele and Sale fly-half AJ Macginty. Heading into their opening fixture of the World Cup’s pool of death, Gold says his primary mission is to earn respect rather than scalps.
“There are elements of our game that I absolutely know we can’t live with an England, France or Argentina at this moment.
“We are under no illusions of how far we have to go as a rugby nation. But the processes are in place that sooner rather than later it can happen.
“Look at Exeter, a third division team, putting in the right processes, picking the right management and now they are in the Prem final year after year.”