June 23, 2005 — Putting aside for the moment the varied reasons why the USA national team wins or loses or ties anyone. Let’s look at who seems to be an appropriate opponent. That’s part of it, right? I’m all for the Eagles playing a top nation, and even getting their butts kicked, on occasion but we also should look at who are appropriate national teams for the Eagles to play that are challenging but not demoralizing.

In addition, there’s the monetary factor. If the USA is to host a nation, we’d like it to be a nation that would be some sort of draw. Hosting test matches, after all, is a lot more fun if they’re profitable.

We see this year that for the most part the USA schedule is a pretty good one in terms of the types of opponents played. There was one blowout, a game that wasn’t good to see in terms of it being the showcase of the sport for the American public, but it was good I think for the Eagle players to understand where they need to go.

The rest of the games have been extremely competitive – the difference between winner and loser being four, five, and six points. This weekend’s game against Canada is expected to be just as close.

In 2006, there looks to be more of the same. If the Super Cup and Churchill Cup don’t change, the USA should expect four games, three of which should be very close. In addition, the Eagles will play Canada and a Caribbean team in the World Cup qualification. The game against Canada will be very close. The game against the other opponent should be an easy win for the Eagles.

Should the USA not beat Canada, they will end up in a two-game playoff against a South American team, probably either Chile or Uruguay.

In addition, the Eagles are supposed to host a Six Nations country on tour. It’s be nice if it were Italy.

Such a schedule of seven to nine test matches, with all but one or two very competitive, is the type of schedule the USA needs.

But are they good draws? Canada, generally, is an excellent rivalry opponent and draws fairly consistently. Uruguay or Chile? They’re OK. Italy? Now you’re talking. The USA is crawling with proud Italian-Americans. Northern California is a hotbed, but so is New Jersey (oft-overlooked venue state), Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. Any one of those places, as well as Chicago, would be somewhere where rugby could get a decent crowd.

You see choosing opponents for the Eagles isn’t always about how the score will end up. It’s about whether the fans will care. The casual sports fan who knows little about rugby doesn’t know if Wales is better than Latvia and probably couldn’t care less. But will he go see the USA play Russia? Sure he will.

Geography matters, too. Play Italy in the Tri-State Area and lots of people will notice. Play Italy in Memphis and they might come for the rugby, but not for the opponent. Play Tonga in New York and you have no excitement. Play Tonga in Salt Lake City and you’ll sell the place out.

Here, then, is what I’d like to see in the upcoming years:

1. Find more opportunities for home games, period. Supposedly it’s the USA’s turn with the Churchill Cup in 2006. That’s a start.
   
2. If we host the Churchill Cup, invite Tonga, Fiji, or Samoa, and hold the tournament either in the Bay Area or in Utah. We prefer Utah. They got 4,000 people to go see Chile in 2002.
   
3. Establish a relationship with Russia. Playing in Krasnoyarsk is no fun, true, but having them come to the USA could get the flags flying against the Evil Empire again.
   
4. Dodge the big boys. Hosting the likes of New Zealand, Australia, etc. is kind of tough to do. Should we do it? Wouldn’t it be better to tour those countries, and play some provincial sides as well as a test?
   
5. Set up a plan of desired opponents in cities where that country has a toehold: Portugal in Boston, Italy in New Jersey, Korea in Los Angeles. And then figure out a way to play them (could the Super Cup perhaps expand and play partly in on continent and partly in another?)
   
6. Find some synergy. Create opportunities for age-grade national teams. Specifically ask (hey, you don’t ask, you don’t get) for U21 or U19 teams to come along. If we don’t want New Zealand to come and win by eleventy-million points, then why not see if they can get a provincial side to come, play some games and run some clinics.
   

It’s easy to just fling ideas out there and not put in all the immense amount of work needed to actually make it happen. But we’re looking for a plan here for the Eagles. We need them to establish a regular schedule against challenging but not overwhelming opponents that will draw fans, and allow us to host major nations as well. We used to have it – the Pacific Rim. Maybe we need to take charge and make something like that happen again.

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