The Men’s Collegiate All American winter camp concluded this past weekend with a series of games between collegiate players and the Junior All American camp players.

As one would expect, the collegiates won the games, but there was plenty of value in the entire exercise for everyone, even if they hadn't been playing rugby for a while.

“We had a lot of guys who haven’t played in the last six weeks, but fitness is something we can get around,” said MCAA Head Coach Gavin Hickie. “But I was impressed with the work rate. Overall I’m extremely pleased with how quickly the guys gel and how quickly they put their heads down and work together.”

The players had just three training sessions together, plus some classroom work, before being run out to play full-on games.

“It was a challenge, and the boys rose to the challenge very well,” said Hickie. “We just wanted the boys to take as much information on board as they could and let them go play.”

All the players took on the work of getting ready, but that doesn’t mean every player looked like a future Eagle.

One of the things Hickie and the coaches learned was that it’s not always true that the best player on the best team in a conference is All American caliber. If a team is in a conference that isn’t the strongest, then players might not be challenged sufficiently.

“Every single player came in with a good attitude, and every single player will go back with work-ons,” said Hickie. “But individual colleges have to have a realistic understanding of where the college teams are in the pecking order. Just because your team dominates a conference doesn’t mean you’ve got the best players in the country.”

The solution to that? More communication from the USA Rugby offices in Colorado, and public metrics that enable coaches to test their players and at least get a benchmark.

Still, a few players from lower-profile schools showed well in camp, and some other players got a bit of an awakening. There will be more players pushing for spots on the summer tour to Australia. Hickie said he purposefully didn’t invite some players who were on last year’s tour because they are known entities, and he wanted to see more unknown entities. In addition, the coaches will be looking at college players throughout the spring, whether they were in the winter camp or not.

In future years, he hopes to have an East Coast and West Coast camp, but even before that happens, holding this winter camp was “a step forward.”

See the list of players who attended the winter camp here.