Photo courtesy Saracens Women’s Rugby
New USA Women’s 15s head coach Rob Cain knows he has a lot of work ahead of him. The former London Saracens Women’s coach must familiarize himself with the whole of women’s rugby in the U.S., but he has two things going for him: First, the head coaching position is now full-time; and second, the women’s pathway is in full bloom these next couple months.
“I’d be silly to sit here and not say there’s a lot of work to do,” Cain said in a virtual press room with several rugby journalists. “One of the exciting things about the role is there’s a real opportunity to make so many special things happen, not just on the international field of play but also through the pathway, through the youth system and really helping to push forward American rugby.”
Cain confessed that his insights into how to develop infrastructure, pathways and on-field success wouldn’t realistically solidify until he had feet on the ground – which was supposed to occur in early June. As he continues to rely on the support of USA Rugby High Performance managers Alex Magleby (also on the call) and Emilie Bydwell, he’ll see American rugby in motion these next two months. Everyone from the Girls’ High School All-Americans through the WPL All-Stars will be active, offering a buffet of showcases for the depth of talent at various age grades (see full schedule).
“The big difference … with me being full-time, it allows me to go the breadth and width of the country and to really work with the players,” Cain said. “And that’s something I’m really looking forward to do and get in those golden moments more regularly throughout season.”
Cain will host his first camp in early August, and then after the WPL season wraps up, he’ll select a team to face New Zealand in Chicago as part of The Rugby Weekend.
“We’re going to know a lot off of that start,” Cain said of the Black Ferns test. “The players will be absolutely buzzing. They get to play the best in the world. What a great way to start the cycle. … I’m really excited. I know the players as we get closer will be absolutely desperate for a really convincing performance.”
USA Rugby also announced a mid-November test against Ireland in Ireland, as well as a USA A match against a TBA opponent. There are more fixtures in the pipeline as well.
“We have signed an MOU with another country for a long-term commitment at certain stages of the year,” said Magleby, who indicated that details would be released once the other union is ready to co-announce the multiple test matches this quadrennial.
“We are working with World Rugby,” Magleby continued. “World Rugby has been trying to get some standardization in the women’s 15s game for our summer window series – some pretty exciting initiatives that World Rugby will be helping in that regard. So you can look at it as analogous to what’s historically happened on the men’s side: November tests, a summer test series, and hopefully something in between, certainly for A level, and also tests.”
Cain explained that, for him, there’s no magic number for assemblies or tests, but that he valued quality over quantity. He also dispelled the notion that he might promote players’ participation in the Tyrrells Premier 15s, which his London Saracens won earlier this spring.
“It’s a competition where there’s still a lot of things that needs to put right. Obviously they’ve got an English-qualified rule where so many teams have to play so many homegrown players. I’m not sure how many foreign players will be based in [English] clubs moving forward,” Cain said. “I think the best thing is just making sure your players are playing the best rugby possible. So I wouldn’t necessarily be looking for them to play overseas. I think it’s important that we work hard with the domestic game … and support that development.”
“Obviously WPL is in that one window and we want to help support that as much as possible,” Magleby said of the U.S.’s top-tier, fall-based competition. “The big work-on really is: What can we do for those top 50 athletes in the spring to ensure they’re getting the quality repetitions they need in order to perform [in] summer test matches. And that’s a big gap right now.”
Magleby said that no contracts would be offered to 15s players in Chula Vista, at least in the short-term, but that there’s a lot of desire to get that done in the medium term. The USOC is focused on the Rugby World Cup Sevens and qualifying for the Olympics, so financial support for 15s contracts would have to come from other sources. Finances are at the heart of USA Rugby’s current troubles, and they’re an ever-present challenge for the U.S. Women’s National Team.
“Fundamentally, USA Rugby is a non-profit,” Magleby said. “We haven’t internally or externally done a great job of building a philanthropic culture, and that’s how non-profits exist in the United States, through grants and philanthropy and donations. A lot of our national teams are supported by grants, fundamentally. And then there is some commercial dollars to top that off but it’s not significant. And I think that the realities of the commercial world versus the hope and the future and the potential [of U.S. rugby] haven’t matched up yet, and we’ve seen that having gone through an Olympic cycle now, World Cups and everything else.”
Magleby explained that since athletes and coaches are the face of the sport, they’re often an attractive point to help cultivate those financial relationships and open access to grants and the like. In other words, Cain will play some role in fundraising for the Women’s National Team.
“Last year our World Cup run was supported, $150k, because of philanthropy. The key for us is to ensure that we can build that infrastructure on a year-to-year basis knowing that the commercial dollars aren’t going to change significantly soon,” Magleby added. “… [M]embership in our NGB, which is different than most other NGBs, has chosen, for various reasons, not to support the national teams with membership dues. And so we really are very reliant on donations, grants and a little bit of commercial dollars to move forward.”
The first fixtures on the docket – regardless of whether Cain attends or not – are the Women’s Collegiate All-American 7s camp in Chula Vista and the National Developmental Academy 7s tournament that bookends that collegiate camp. There are seven teams featuring at the Elite Athletic Training Center that weekend, and even though it’s 7s, the fixture will provide a nice intro into the American landscape.
“My big point of difference,” Cain collected his feedback on U.S. women’s rugby from the last few weeks, “is I want people to talk about the rugby first and the athletic ability second. That’s really just looking at the technical and tactical stuff and helping them be the best players they can be.”