Pete & Pete @ 2015 NDS – WRWC Lessons

There is no doubt that all of the teams at the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup (WRWC) learned lessons. But at the 2015 National Development Summit (NDS) the USA Rugby Women’s National Team Coaching Staff Pete Steinberg and Peter Bagetta took us through their lessons learned. I won’t take the time to list out all the specifics, if you really wanted to know your should attend an NDS, the conference is awesome!

Some of what they mentioned is well known in the USA and not really a surprise, we have a huge hurdle with our geography, coaching resources and as a result player identification. So what do the coaches and WE do looking forward to the 2017 WRWC?

2017

BREAKING… Steinberg re-upped until 2017…

The US has proven that they can compete but needs to show that they can score and ultimately WIN. To look towards that the Petes shared some of their plan going forward. Specifically the coaching staff will be continuing their ETC Camps. These camps will continue to be high performance and introduce players to that environment. They will also be looking to the National Development Academies to hold alternative camps to identify & develop player talent. They will also be looking align the pathways of the Junior and High School All American teams.

The last point is particularly exciting as most of us have wondered why these programs haven’t been aligned. We’ve seen very few AA players step onto the WNT and hopefully this means that this will change. When we look outside the US, other Nations are fed talent from their junior programs and we need to emulate that.

What can WE do?

Coaches need to strive teach our players all of the skills, period. One of the examples in Steinberg’s presentation was that they invited a top college prospect to one of the ETCs but then found out that the player was missing a critical skill for their position. They were flabbergasted as this player came from a top Varsity school. Delving into that a bit more it’s not as uncommon as one may think. If players aren’t taught critical skills by their coaches the likelihood of them finding it in another avenue is low. Likewise if a skill is not called for in their current gameplan or their opponent doesn’t require it…why would it be taught?

But we’ve got to look outside our competition, gameplan and coaching experience if we want to help make women’s rugby in the US grow and ultimately the Women’s National Team better. If you don’t have the resources to teach players to spin pass, hook or kick…find a resource and share it with your team. Every player we touch needs to be an all around great player with all the available skills.

True, not every player will ever break into the WNT but if every player is skilled, competition goes up and everyone will get better. If we can start at the bottom and grow every player, that will filter up to the top (like cream…) and we will improve women’s rugby and WIN at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.