Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Welcome to 2016 and with it, the first Talking Rugby segment of the New Year. The big news around the water cooler this week is the new head coach for the USA. Seems Canada followed suit and has a coaching change on the horizon as well.
Monday’s appointment of John Mitchell rings in a new era for the USA Eagles. Gone is Mike Tolkin, who by all accounts wasn’t all that bad of a head coach. He followed in the footsteps of Eddie O’Sullivan and produced marginal results during the last World Cup cycle. No better or worse than any of his most recent predecessors. His claim to fame will unfortunately be that he was the coach that sacked Todd Clever, one of the most beloved Eagle Captains ever. The silver lining on his final year at the helm was extending the USA’s winning streak over Canada to three matches.
Tolkin has taken a lot of heat over the years, including from myself, but rarely praised for his service to the USA. At which he has been great. I truly wish him the best and hope to see him pop up in charge of one of the PRO Rugby teams.
Moving on to Mitchell. The hope is that his tenure brings uncharted territory for the Eagles and not something akin to Scott Johnson’s short foray into coaching the Eagles. He’ll likely be given far more resources than Johnson, O’Sullivan, or Tolkin ever received, so now is the time to strike. He jumps right into action with the Americas Rugby Championship next month. Argentina should prove to be an insurmountable task, but anything less than wins over Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay should not be acceptable. Canada should be the make or break test of the campaign for Mitchell and the USA.
While controversy has followed Mitchell throughout his coaching career, few doubt his ability as a coach. As hard nosed of a coach as he was a player, Mitchell has seen accolades as well as problems. While he is most famously known for being at the helm of New Zealand’s 2003 World Cup fallout, most forget that he only lost two games during his All Blacks tenure. Of course, given the talent in New Zealand, anything less than perfection is unacceptable.
Mitchell also enjoyed a good run in South Africa before player revolts tarnished some solid work. Given that the USA went through their own player controversy during this past year, it will be interesting to see how the new man in charge handles the locker room.
Even more importantly is how Mitchell acclimates himself to the most difficult sports landscape in the entire world. Despite the growth, rugby is still no where close to mainstream in the USA. Many foreign coaches have stumbled upon finding themselves faced with the magnitude of finding diamonds scattered across a massive nation with little high performance infrastructure. It is unlike any other setup in the world and Mitchell will do best to embrace it as opposed to trying to swim upstream.
If PRO Rugby is able to get off the ground, then his job becomes significantly easier as it should be a valuable scouting platform. Then again, he’ll be faced with a messy political system in the USA and whispers are spreading that USA Rugby’s favor is already waning with the PRO Rugby group.
National coaches are used to the juggling act that is modern day international rugby. It is no longer just about what happens on the pitch. The pressure and expectations can be a brutal mistress. The USA job is like juggling 5-6 bowling balls… all on fire.
Hey, at least expectations are nice and low. Improving to even a 50/50 win to loss ratio would have the populace celebrating his name.
I wish John Mitchell the very best of luck. Turning the Eagles into contenders is a long shot by 2019, but they could realistically be a team that could win two games at the next World Cup. The talent is there.
