For rugby union in America, nothing is ever simple. The Rugby Weekend in Chicago is no exception.
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On Saturday at Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, the USA women kick off a fascinating triple-header against the New Zealand Black Ferns. Ireland play Italy next, the Irish returning to the scene of a historic win against New Zealand two years ago. Rounding the day off, the US men will take on the Mãori All Blacks.
For USA Rugby, this is a major event. A union in transition, it has a new chief executive, the Scotsman Ross Young, and new board members including the great Argentinian scrum-half Agustín Pichot, there to represent World Rugby, now a significant creditor, of which he is vice-chair.
Two big events were staged in the States last summer: South Africa v Wales in Washington, which was a damp squib, and the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, which wasn’t. More than 100,000 fans attended three days’ play by the Bay. Now the show moves to the Windy City, which has sold out Soldier Field before: for USA v All Blacks in 2014 and for that indelible Irish win.
For a clue to likely attendance this year, it pays to look to another Soldier Field occasion, staged in September 2015. A World Cup warm-up against Australia saw the Eagles briefly wobble the Wallabies. But the crowd was a little over 23,000. Not bad at all for rugby in America, but nearly 40,000 less than those two All Black sellouts. On Thursday, USA Rugby said more than 30,000 tickets had been sold this year.
This weekend, the All Blacks are in Japan. What’s more, this is not one of three November weekends officially sanctioned for international matches. For teams like Ireland and Italy, in charge of their own players, and for England, able to deal with the powerful clubs who employ theirs, this is not a problem. For the likes of the USA, it is.
“Preparation’s going well,” Gary Gold, the US men’s head coach, told the Guardian. “It’s going well under the circumstances. It’s a difficult time. I’m still finding time in the States such a learning curve. I’ve learned to be careful what I wish for.”
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No coach of male or female Eagles ever got that. In his first year, Gold has overseen eight wins from eight through the Americas Rugby Championship and three June internationals. He has an inviting set of November fixtures: the Mãori, Samoa, Romania and Ireland. But he must start without most of the senior players who led in victory over Scotland in Houston in June.
Blaine Scully and Samu Manoa of Cardiff, Joe Taufete’e of Worcester, Paul Lasike of Harlequins, AJ MacGinty of Sale. Even if all were fit – and MacGinty’s injury means Gold will be without his world-class fly-half the entire fall – none could play. As it happens the new US women’s coach, Rob Cain, faces a similar problem. The best American women are paid to play sevens and cannot face the Black Ferns, the No 1 team in the world.
There’s more. Many US men play in the second divisions of England and France but the top level of the US domestic game is Major League Rugby. It concluded its first season in July and will not kick-off again until the end of January. That means some of the USA’s most promising players – including the flanker Hanco Germishuys and the wing Nate Augspurger – have not played pro rugby in four months. In contrast, the Maori are coming off Super Rugby and provincial competition.
“In June,” Gold said, “all the players were playing in MLR, and it really gave us a lot. You got nervous because the guys might pick up an injury or a knock or something but now it’s even more daunting, because not many players have been playing for very long.
“Obviously I don’t want to be too controversial about stuff, but having a game of this magnitude out of the window is, well, let’s just say it’s not ideal. The optimist in me says, well, it’s a nice opportunity for a lot of young players, and I believe it is. So that’s what this weekend is going to be about. I’m excited to see a couple of our young guys get this opportunity. But I’m very realistic about what’s waiting for us.”
That realism is born of experience. Gold was an assistant coach for South Africa at the 2011 World Cup and coached in the English Premiership with London Irish, Bath, Newcastle and Worcester. The Mãori are a “proper rugby team”, he said, predicting a severe test that will, as in any game, start up front. With the Eagles’ propping reserves depleted there will be game time at loosehead for the aptly named Chance Wenglewski, a former wrestling champion and football defensive end who became a collegiate All-American in rugby and is in fact still at college, at Lindenwood University. No exam could be tougher.
‘A colossus of a kid’
For pointers on the Mãori team, the Guardian contacted Scotty “Sumo” Stevenson, a Sky TV commentator and rugby writer who knows a bit about America too, being a fast friend of New York Old Blue, a leading club team.
“This is one of the most storied teams in all of rugby,” Stevenson wrote, by email. “A team that represents the people and the place; the history and the future. The existential timeline begins in 1888 but the thread passes back through many generations, connected by tribal bloodlines to ancestors long mythologised, their spirits now the living ink of Ta Moko (traditional tribal tattoos).”
The “All Blacks” in the Mãori name is in contrast a branding thing, in place since 2012. In Chicago there will likely be only one man who has played for the team that really owns the name: No 8 Akira Ioane, who featured for a non-Test XV in France last year and was considered unlucky to miss Steve Hansen’s squad for Japan and Europe now.
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“Ioane is a colossus of a kid who has yet to fully grasp his potential,” Stevenson wrote. “This is a great stage upon which to play the performance of his career. It is another All Blacks audition: a defining moment.”
There are in fact other All Blacks in the Mãori squad, but here Gold might take some comfort. He is not the only coach at the mercy of rugby’s ridiculous calendar. All the Test-capped players in Clayton McMillan’s selection, the World Cup-winning wing Nehe Milner-Skudder among them, are with the senior team in Japan. They will only join the Mãori when they move on to Brazil and Chile.
Stevenson picked out others to watch: front-rower Chris Eves, young locks Pari Pari Parkinson and Isaiah Walker-Leawere, Mitchell Karpik “an omnipresent menace” at flanker, scrum-half Brad Weber “an itch that can’t be scratched: the hobbit-sized half-back of bad dreams”.
And so, Gold’s men will face a true test of their mettle. The Eagles have never beaten the Mãori, last losing by eight tries to one and 54-7 at Toyota Park in Chicago two years ago. Ioane scored twice then. So the Americans might seek alternative inspiration, from a game played in 2013. At the Talen Energy Stadium, a US team powered by a raucous Philly crowd and the back-five forward Cam Dolan – available this year – gave the Mãori a genuine fright.
The tourists still won, though, by 29-19.
USA v Mãori: L Hume (New York); N Augspurger (San Diego, capt), G Moore (North Harbour), D Audsley, R Matyas (both San Diego); W Hooley (Bedford), S Davies (Glendale); C Wenglewski (Lindenwood University), D Fawsitt (New York), P Mullen (Newcastle), B Landry (Ealing), N Civetta (Doncaster), J Quill (Glendale), T Lamborn (Southland), C Dolan (NOLA). Replacements: J Hilterbrand (Manly), A Purpura (Old Blue New York), D Waldren (London Scottish), G Peterson (Glasgow), H Germishuys, P Wooching (both unattached), R de Haas (Free State), W Magie (Glendale).
Mãori All Blacks: S Stevenson (North Harbour); J Lowe (Hawke’s Bay), R Thompson (Manawatu), T Walden, R Ware (both Taranaki); O Black (Manawatu), B Weber (Hawke’s Bay); C Eves (North Harbour), A Dixon (capt), B May (both Hawke’s Bay), I Walker-Leawere (Welllington), PP Parkinson (Tasman), R Prinsep (Canterbury), M Karpik (Bay of Plenty), A Ioane (Auckland). Replacements: R Abel (Auckland), R Wright (Northland), M Renata (Auckland), H Matenga (Bay of Plenty), B Harmon (Canterbury), J Ruru (Auckland), J Ioane (Otago), M Lansdown (Waikato)