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Women's Elite Rugby tipped to have big impact on USA

McKenzie Hawkins passes the ball during USA's 50-7 defeat to Canada in Los Angeles. © 2024 Alex Ho

USA Women head coach Sione Fukofuka believes the introduction of a professional league in the country will have a huge impact on the fortunes of the national team.

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Earlier this month it was announced that Women’s Elite Rugby (WER), the USA’s first professional women’s rugby union league, will launch in 2025.

WER organisers hope to have between six and eight teams competing in the inaugural season and think it can capitalise on the global growth of women’s sport as the game builds towards Women’s Rugby World Cup 2033 in the States.

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      Fukofuka watched the Women’s Eagles concede 40 unanswered points to slip a 50-7 defeat against Canada in only his second match in charge on Sunday but is confident WER’s arrival can only benefit his squad and the game in the USA.

      “Huge,” he replied when asked how important the new league could be.

      “It’ll have a big impact. The fact that the players can spend time in a daily training environment is a good component in terms of time away from work and preparation.”

      Of the 15 players the former Wallaroos assistant coach selected to start the World Rugby Pacific Four Series 2024 opener, only three do not currently play their club rugby in England’s Women’s Premiership Rugby (PWR).

      “The fact that it provides us with the opportunity to bring some of those players back from the UK, so they contribute to our domestic league and increase the competition here is massive,” Fukofuka added.

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      “The fact that I would have more access and the ability to work with my senior players and my national team players in country, is a big excitement around it.

      “Obviously, my experience coming from Super W [is] when Super W is strong, the Wallaroos are strong and building that competition and that ability to have a daily training environment is a big part of it.

      “And probably the last layer there is as WER comes into their planning and their development that will also obviously include high-level coaches coming in and the more access the US players have to technical and tactical coaching at a level that allows them to develop, the better it is for me and the national team.

      “Because we end up with players that are much better prepared coming into this environment. So, it allows us to develop and progress even further.”

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      USA’s winless run against Canada now stretches to nine matches and their North American rivals ruthlessly exposed the gap between the two teams in Sunday’s second half in Los Angeles.

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      The Women’s Eagles have not won a Pacific Four Series match since beating Australia 16-14 in Auckland almost two years ago.

      That looks like being the key match-up once again this year for the USA, with whoever emerges victorious at AAMI Park on 17 May likely to take their place at WXV 1 and Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025.

      Fukofuka knows the Wallaroos well, having worked with the bulk of Jo Yapp’s squad for three years before moving to America, and he is confident his current charges have the quality to win in Melbourne next month.

      “I think they do match up pretty well,” Fukofuka said ahead of the Canada defeat.

      “There is a fair bit of experience in this USA group. They play in the UK at a pretty high level, so I’m excited around that.

      “Whereas Australia, you know, the Super W isn’t necessarily at the same level of competition week in, week out. But there’s some X-Factor in that backline that we’ve got to be really conscious of.

      “This is going to be a bit cliched; I know, I apologise for it… but to be honest, the way I see the game itself is it’ll be decided at the breakdown and the set piece.

      “If they can service their outside backs, Maya Stewart and obviously Faitala [Moleka] at full-back then we’ll have a pretty tough time.

      “Whereas, if we can slow that down and win our share of ball, there’s some pretty smart players in my team. So, I’m excited to see what they can do with a bit of possession.”

      Fukofuka – who describes himself as an “attacking coach” – is well aware that one of the biggest jobs he faces is to give the Women’s Eagles the confidence they can win having only tasted victory in six of their previous 23 Tests.

      That is why beating the Springbok Women in his maiden match in charge last month was so important.

      He said: “It was a mindset thing against South Africa because one thing the US team hasn’t done very well in recent [years] is win games against or at least perform against teams that they’re expected to win against.”

      And make no mistake, the goal for Fukofuka and the Women’s Eagles over the next three weeks is to beat the Wallaroos and book their tickets to Canada and England.

      “If we play well, we get a result, we finish above Australia in the top three.

      “Then we have World Cup qualification, and we get the opportunity to play the top six countries in the world. So, in short, yes that’s our focus,” he said.

      “It’s a bit of a controllable if we get that result [against Australia], then the rest of our year is pretty much planned for us. Whereas if we don’t, then there’s a little bit of the unknown.

      “So, we’re definitely chasing a bit of certainty.”

      New tickets for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 are now available, with prices starting at £10 for adults and £5 for children. Buy now!

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      Comments on RugbyPass

      J
      JW 58 minutes ago
      Andy Goode: Aussie comments didn't cover them in glory

      Yes I was happy with the refs ruling of arrival (and that the tackled player wasn’t obligated to release the ball immediately) but if you see the wide angle you can note how Morgan dives to get there in time.


      I don’t mind your (or the refs) view, but what Morgan said is accurate. Both Mils and Beaver agreed on the breakdown, and you will also get the same view from Aotearoa Rugby Pod guys for a pretty unanimous NZ view.

      Sometimes when both players are low its a rugby collision and this is one of those times.

      Not recently. In the SR finals and AB v Arg series weve seen players clearly bent 90 at the waist still be penalised, only when the attacker does something the ref sees immediate mitigation and rules a rugby incident. Tizzano didn’t offer that he was always in the position Morgan aimed to collect him in.


      Happy to not throw the rule book at these situations but the precent is that they are in these situations.

      many tries out wide the player is allowed to be tackled while diving

      They are diving for the line, not to avoid being tackled.

      “In principle, in a try scoring situation, if the action is deemed to be a dive forward for a try, then it should be permitted. If a player is deemed to have left the ground to avoid a tackle; or to jump, or hurdle a potential tackler, then this is dangerous play and should be sanctioned accordingly.”

      You can read Nicks article for an updated discourse on this though.

      30 Go to comments
      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

      But he was wrong, he had to take back what he said. But maybe this only happened because he came out and was honest with his initial plans?


      He’s simply in a position where he should be far more professional.


      I don’t really follow much media, especially SM, but again, I’ve not seen anyone complaining. Plenty of ridicule and pointing out things like it being disrespectful to the game, but as far as the English language goes, that’s not complaining. Nick Bishop for instance hasn’t been complaining, he’s simply saying Galthie made a bad decision for France’s prospects (which when the common reply is ‘thats how it is’).


      Complaining would be views expressing that the FFR should have put the tour back a week so that all T14 finalists could attend. Complaining would be saying they’ve been robbed of seeing the worlds best stars. Complaining would be saying players can simply take extra weeks off from T14. I’ve only seen advice and suggestions that these are things France need to look-at-for-the-future.


      Basically I tried to communicate with French fans because they don’t understand what’s being communicated. ALL reactions I have seen shared here by French supports have all seemed way over the top compared what I’ve seen expressed about this tour.

      the players are expected to play in too many matches, for too many minutes, and need more rest and recovery time.

      This is the message I have been sharing. So something needs to happen, whether thats France pull out of more Internationals or rest players from more domestic games, who knows, but I also don’t think what they have now is working. It’s obviously much better than 3-4 years ago, but they appear to want to work even harder at it like you say. Personally I’ve only seen LNR be reasonable, I hear much less of their other internationals being denied/influenced not to play, so I imagine that they will give even further (as I can’t really see France pulling out the other international windows as well).

      147 Go to comments
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