Gold: Eagles Scrum Showing Signs Of Improvement

Gold: Eagles Scrum Showing Signs Of Improvement

New USA MNT head coach Gary Gold said he thinks the Eagles scrum is getting better.

Jan 10, 2018 by Alex Goff
Gold: Eagles Scrum Showing Signs Of Improvement

Is the USA men’s national team’s Achilles' heel still the scrum?

If there’s something that makes fans nervous in the upcoming Americas Rugby Championship, then it’s the prospect of the Eagles getting into penalty trouble because of the scrum — or struggling to get good possession from that area of play.

New USA head coach Gary Gold has some encouraging words for the Eagles scrummagers going into the ARC.

“I thought the scrum made fantastic improvements in the autumn,” Gold told FloRugby. “I think to go toe-to-toe with the Georgian pack was pretty special. I think the coaches and the players did really, really well there. We also, in that test match got some driven maul tries, as well.”

Georgia is one of the better scrummaging teams in the world, but two of the Eagles' opponents in the ARC —Argentina (Feb. 3) and Uruguay (March 3) — have also given the USA problems in the past.

“There’s always room to improve, obviously, and one of the areas for improvement is to get those guys playing together as often as possible," Gold said. "We need these players understand where their teammates’ strengths are. So they need time together but they’ve shown some good signs in the fall.”