Courtesy of USA Rugby

LAFAYETTE, CO — After several months of preparation, USA Rugby has rolled out a comprehensive women's schedule for the remainder of the 2018 calendar year. By leveraging existing resources and prioritizing age-grade assemblies, the schedule makes a commitment in looking ahead to the 2021 World Cup, with a shared emphasis on succession planning for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and 2025 World Cup.

Each event focuses heavily on talent verification, player development, and competition. In alignment with the restructured American Rugby Model, the schedule incorporates nine total age-grade assemblies which capitalize on breaks outside the scholastic year; as well as a comprehensive camp and tour schedule for the sevens and 15s senior programs.

Selected from Project SOAR, each assembly will feature a talented and experienced coaching staff with the knowledge to help athletes accelerate their development and perform in increased pressure situations. Coaches will highlight and foster the critical performance actions and behaviors required to thrive in international competition, also providing athletes with a plan to build on those skills so they can maximize time between events.

"Assembling the top currently identified players across all age groups will give an excellent snapshot into several elements of our high-performance program," said Emilie Bydwell, USA Rugby's general manager for women's high performance. "This will help us finalize our campaign plan for the 2021 World Cup, along with not only ensuring success in Tokyo [2020] but looking beyond to Paris 2024. We will be utilizing this summer to make sure players and their needs are at the core of this ongoing planning process."

On the women's national team side (15s), an August training camp, as well as segments of the Women's Premier League and collegiate sessions, will select the player pool for the 2018 November tour. Overall, the fall tour will consist of three Eagles test matches and an "A" level game for the Women's Selects.

On the Olympic women's sevens side, USA rugby will introduce programming for a specific talent development group geared towards 2024 Paris and 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Termed as Hawk-Eye (Talent Development Program), a training camp will be run alongside final World Cup preparation in early July to evaluate and accelerate potential athletes. Subsequently, a Hawk-Eye training group will also assemble for an inaugural summer intensive residency program, including an apprenticeship at the senior women's national team camp.

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS