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Cain Kicks Off WPL Tour in SF

  • 03 Sep 2019
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Last week, USA 15s head coach Rob Cain kicked off the 2019 Women’s Premier League (WPL) tour, working with Life West, Berkeley and area pool player across four days. Cain is in his second year of the full-time coaching position and began this year’s tour in a much different place than 2018.

“The first year I was learning – learning players, learning coaches, seeing the landscape. After 12 months we’re in a much better position to work with a lot more detail,” Cain said. “We know a lot of the player pool. We know after a year’s experience of playing international rugby what international rugby demands, and we can help develop players. We’re looking for certain things that players can do and then we just try to support them with the things that international rugby requires. So that’s what this year’s about: more detail for the players, which is a really good thing.”

The November tests immediately followed the end of the 2018 WPL season. The regional training centers fired up in early 2019 and fed into the Denver assembly, which brought 55 players together in advance of the Barbarians match. The summer culminated with the Super Series in San Diego. In between, Cain was involved with the All-American teams – traveling with the USA U20s to England for Tri Nations, for example – and took in the Women’s All-Star Week in Greeley, Colo.

“It’s been full-on since Christmas so a lot of the players, especially a lot of the pool players … are probably sick of me, sick of the rest of the national staff. It’s really important to have a break away with me,” Cain explained why the 2019 WPL tour began in week three as opposed to week one. “On top of that, you have so many new coaches who’ve come to the WPL, which I think is brilliant. You’ve got Life West, a new team as well. And you’ve got lots of player movements. Our role is to try and make people as successful as we can be, so it would have been a bit unfair to come in the first two weeks with all those changes and people transitioning. It allows people to get into their environments and embed nicely and then we start looking.”

But there’s been plenty of work happening in the background, as a network of coaches and staff have been coding film and discussing players since the season kicked off. Last week, Cain officially began his WPL tour, training with Life West on Thursday and Berkeley on Sunday. On Saturday, Cain and USA 15s assistant coach Richard Ashfield, who’s based at Stanford, attended the Bay Area teams’ first WPL match against each other. It was entertaining rugby from the get-go.

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“It’s very different,” Cain compared Week 3 in 2018 to Week 3 in 2019. “I think 12 months is a long time and I think there’s been some really important changes in terms of how the players are meant to play. I think how the coaches are looking at the game and trying to support them [have changed] and I think it’s been fantastic to see such a big transition in just 12 months. It bodes really well. The more that we can have more inner competition, higher-tempo games, bigger collisions, more ball in play, more numbers beating defenders, more keeping the ball alive – that’s exactly what we want to do with the Eagles, so this is a perfect platform.”

Life West raced to a 19-0 lead in 10 minutes, but then Berkeley righted itself and by halftime had scored three tries to trail 19-15 into the break. The teams traded tries in the third quarter but then the Gladiatrix pulled ahead in the final 10 minutes of the match: 36-20.

Both Cain and Ashfield lauded the performance and appreciated the opportunity to see several pool players live and in different roles, ones that suit their home clubs’ needs.

“We were talking about Nicole Strasko today, who’s a really good example,” Cain said “So she’s been playing at 2nd row for us and I thought she had a really good game in the back row today. Again, we only get limited contact with some of these players so the more that we see them, the more games they play at club level and regional level, it just allows us to see what is the best thing of them.”

Fellow Super Series Eagles Katy Augustyn, Catie Benson, Bulou Mataitoga, Amy Naber Talei, Neariah Persinger and Hope Rogers were also in play Saturday.

“They should look like an international rugby player. They should stand out,” Cain said of general expectations of the USA players. “If they’re not standing out, we need to ask the question, “Why?” Is it because the players they’re competing with, are they playing better? Are they having a bad day? Are they sick? Are they coming back from injury? All these different types of questions. Have they started a new job? … I think the more that the international players in the player pool stand out, [the more] the club player can have an aspiration and really understand what it is to play international rugby, because they have that marker every week.”

Cain indicated that, since Week 1, the player pool has added six individuals who weren’t on the national team’s radar before the WPL season started.

“We’re also looking at about 5-7 players who have been on our radar but have shown some really good development in the last six months, and the first couple of weeks [in the WPL] they’ve done really well,” Cain said. “A few are playing today [Saturday] and again kicked on even more, so it’s a really good platform for them to grab our attention. And then it’s down to us to make sure we can support them while they’re playing WPL.”

Cain will now head to Minnesota for a training session with Twin Cities and then take in the Amazons vs. New York match on Saturday. By the end of the six-stop tour, Cain will have seen all 10 teams in action, and then head to Glendale, Colo., for nationals on Nov. 1 and Nov. 3.

CAIN’S 2019 WPL TOUR

Aug. 31 – Sept 1 @ SF: Life West vs. Berkeley

Sept 5-8 @ Minnesota: Twin Cities vs. New York

Sept. 12-15 @ Colorado: Glendale vs. ORSU

Sept. 19-21 @ Georgia: Atlanta vs. Beantown

Sept. 26-29 @ San Diego: Surfers vs. ORSU

Oct. 3-6 @ Chicago: North Shore vs. New York

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