The John Mitchell era, all 18 months of it, comes to a close Saturday against Canada and love the coach or not, you know he's going to want to go out with another first on his resume.
Having guided the USA to the program's first major 15s tournament championship since the 1924 Olympics, Mitchell now has the chance to be the first USA Head Coach to beat out Canada for a Rugby World Cup spot.
That'd be nice. Good feelings all around. The four-game winless streak, and big early hiccups against Brazil and Uruguay aside, it would end everything on a positive note.
So how does that positive note get played?
The first part has to be learning the lessons from last weekend. Key among those was:
Don't misfire on the lineout, because Canada does a good job launching an attack from those stolen lineouts.
What the Eagles have done to address these issues is between them and their coaches. Certainly the lineouts are simply a timing and execution thing. The defense around the breakdown is probably coaching, but might also be related to personnel. (If you hear Alex Goff in the RuggaMatrix America podcast, it's got a LOT to do with personnel.)
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/RuggaMatrixUSA/status/880086796918341632" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
Giving up penalties is just mental focus. If you've got the ball, you need to know who's around you and those around you have to communicate. Getting penalized for holding onto the ball can turn an attack position into a defending position in seconds.
The personnel changes Mitchell has made are important, because they address several of the problems the Eagles encountered last week.
Lineouts. Chris Baumann comes in at prop after needing an extra week to recover from injury. He's a smart player and a good lifter, and timely lifting is much needed.
Nate Brakeley comes in as another really good lineout weapon, but he may well be more important as a lifter.
Defense around the ruck has burned the Eagles more than a few times of late, and the addition of Tony Lamborn, Baumann, and Brakeley will help that a great deal. While rugby fans voted Nate Augspurger and Ben Cima as the two most valuable players of the ARC, and those were nice choices, but they got it wrong. The MVP of the Americas Rugby Championship was Baumann. His strength in the scrums, his aggression in the breakdown, and his overall stalwart play was crucial for the Eagles then, and it will be again now.
Scruffy, grumpy, and something of a rugby nomad, Baumann's presence is the biggest change from last week.
Tony Lamborn's addition isn't a massive improvement over John Quill - both bring good things to the team. But Lamborn has that try-scoring touch. In nine test matches (seven starts), he has scored five tries. At that rate, he will bypass Todd Clever's USA record for tries by a forward by the time he gets his 31st cap. That probably won't happen, but there's something to be said for someone who knows how to finish off a movement.
Ryan Matyas coming in at wing will be good for the USA because Matyas has been playing very strong defense, and is a hard-nosed clearout man in rucks, as well.
Madison Hughes at fullback is a bit more of a wild card. Last week Mitchell chose Ben Cima, who is not a fullback, but a flyhalf. Cima's performance wasn't bad at all, but he seemed a little unsure of some of his decisions (the maybe-I-should, maybe-I-shouldn't pass to Mike Te'o that created a knock-on in the USA 22 is one example). This time around, Mitchell has chosen a very different player in Hughes. The USA 7s team captain is a runner first, not a kicker. He will counter-attack, and combined with Mike Te'o and Ryan Matyas, can form a pretty dangerous running deep three. Yeah, yeah, Hughes can kick for touch if he needs to, but he's there to run, and put a jolt in the offense.
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/USARugby/status/880479943452274688" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
Among the changes Mitchell didn't make was replacing Nate Augspurger with Shaun Davies. Augspurger has come under some significant criticism for the speed of delivery (again, check the RMA podcast). But Mitchell likes his moxie and his elusiveness. Shaun Davies is a crucial sub here because he and Will Magie are the only backs on the reserves list.
So in short this USA lineup can perform better than last week's, can defend better than last week's, and hang a little tougher. Maybe that's enough.
Having guided the USA to the program's first major 15s tournament championship since the 1924 Olympics, Mitchell now has the chance to be the first USA Head Coach to beat out Canada for a Rugby World Cup spot.
That'd be nice. Good feelings all around. The four-game winless streak, and big early hiccups against Brazil and Uruguay aside, it would end everything on a positive note.
So how does that positive note get played?
The first part has to be learning the lessons from last weekend. Key among those was:
Don't misfire on the lineout, because Canada does a good job launching an attack from those stolen lineouts.
Be tighter defensively around the breakdown.
Be aware that Aaron Carpenter comes on in part because he is very quick off the back of the scrum.
Giving up penalties in the middle of the field when you have the ball is not worth it.
What the Eagles have done to address these issues is between them and their coaches. Certainly the lineouts are simply a timing and execution thing. The defense around the breakdown is probably coaching, but might also be related to personnel. (If you hear Alex Goff in the RuggaMatrix America podcast, it's got a LOT to do with personnel.)
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/RuggaMatrixUSA/status/880086796918341632" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
Giving up penalties is just mental focus. If you've got the ball, you need to know who's around you and those around you have to communicate. Getting penalized for holding onto the ball can turn an attack position into a defending position in seconds.
The personnel changes Mitchell has made are important, because they address several of the problems the Eagles encountered last week.
Lineouts. Chris Baumann comes in at prop after needing an extra week to recover from injury. He's a smart player and a good lifter, and timely lifting is much needed.
Nate Brakeley comes in as another really good lineout weapon, but he may well be more important as a lifter.
Defense around the ruck has burned the Eagles more than a few times of late, and the addition of Tony Lamborn, Baumann, and Brakeley will help that a great deal. While rugby fans voted Nate Augspurger and Ben Cima as the two most valuable players of the ARC, and those were nice choices, but they got it wrong. The MVP of the Americas Rugby Championship was Baumann. His strength in the scrums, his aggression in the breakdown, and his overall stalwart play was crucial for the Eagles then, and it will be again now.
Scruffy, grumpy, and something of a rugby nomad, Baumann's presence is the biggest change from last week.
Tony Lamborn's addition isn't a massive improvement over John Quill - both bring good things to the team. But Lamborn has that try-scoring touch. In nine test matches (seven starts), he has scored five tries. At that rate, he will bypass Todd Clever's USA record for tries by a forward by the time he gets his 31st cap. That probably won't happen, but there's something to be said for someone who knows how to finish off a movement.
Ryan Matyas coming in at wing will be good for the USA because Matyas has been playing very strong defense, and is a hard-nosed clearout man in rucks, as well.
Madison Hughes at fullback is a bit more of a wild card. Last week Mitchell chose Ben Cima, who is not a fullback, but a flyhalf. Cima's performance wasn't bad at all, but he seemed a little unsure of some of his decisions (the maybe-I-should, maybe-I-shouldn't pass to Mike Te'o that created a knock-on in the USA 22 is one example). This time around, Mitchell has chosen a very different player in Hughes. The USA 7s team captain is a runner first, not a kicker. He will counter-attack, and combined with Mike Te'o and Ryan Matyas, can form a pretty dangerous running deep three. Yeah, yeah, Hughes can kick for touch if he needs to, but he's there to run, and put a jolt in the offense.
[tweet url="https://twitter.com/USARugby/status/880479943452274688" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
Among the changes Mitchell didn't make was replacing Nate Augspurger with Shaun Davies. Augspurger has come under some significant criticism for the speed of delivery (again, check the RMA podcast). But Mitchell likes his moxie and his elusiveness. Shaun Davies is a crucial sub here because he and Will Magie are the only backs on the reserves list.
So in short this USA lineup can perform better than last week's, can defend better than last week's, and hang a little tougher. Maybe that's enough.