There are some things Tolkin had no control over. I haven’t talked to him much about players who were hurt before selections were made (Angus MacLellan), or players who couldn’t take the time away, but you know there were players in that situation. More obviously, Samu Manoa couldn’t be with the team until August because he was training with Toulon, and French clubs are notoriously difficult to deal with. USA Rugby decided to not fight that battle.

Of course the sad injury to Scott LaValla (above, David Barpal photo) hurt the team, and was under no one’s control.

What was under Tolkin’s control was a few other decisions:

1. Dropping Todd Clever was a decision that was coming. The relationship between Clever and Tolkin was deteriorating. But, when LaValla was injured, he could have been brought back. He wasn’t.

2. Starting the year with Danny Barrett and Cam Dolan were in the starting lineup. By September they were on the bench.

3. Tolkin experimented with Shalom Suniula as a hybrid backup scrumhalf/flyhalf. The planned backup at scrumhalf, Niku Kruger, wasn’t used until very late. 

4. As mentioned above, Chris Wyles has been the USA fullback through the last eight years. He started his first three Eagle games on the wing, and over the next 46 games played fullback in all but three. Then Tolkin moves him to the wing against Australia, sees Blaine Scully do well at fullback, and keeps that change for the Samoa game. 

5. It’s not Tolkin’s fault that his pipeline of props started to get a hit from injuries.

(Back to A Post-RWC Eagle Assessment)