EIRA Launches Third Straight Spain Tour for U18 Boys
EIRA Launches Third Straight Spain Tour for U18 Boys
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy is going back for another go in Spain.
The U18 Boys EIRA side will tour Spain for the third straight time, and hope to continue its improvement arc while there. Their first two matches in 2021 were fairly convincing victories for the Spain National U18 side. In 2022 the games were much closer.
This year, EIRA is adding a warmup match to their tour, giving everyone a chance to take the field, get to know each other a little better and … well … warm up.
That game is today, June 27, against Vigo and will be followed up with games against Spain on June 29 and July 2.
Head Coach Salty Thompson has chosen a side from all over the USA, with several who have experience with the EIRA tour program—many were with the U17 team that toured Ireland in 2022. But there are also some newbies.
Among those picked:
James Rose. The Green Bay standout was a player everyone touted to Thompson, event back in January when Thompson was at the Wisconsin Rugby Summit. Since then Rose has led the Leprechauns to another state title and recently helped the Rebels Rugby Academy win the Bloodfest 7s.
“We’ll see what he’s made of,” said Thompson.
While the USA U18 team has selected a squad with a high percentage of players who were at the Boys HS National Championships, EIRA has found players elsewhere.
“The thing about some of the players is that they might be on a team that gets 10 or 12 at training. They’re really good players but their team doesn’t have enough players to compete at Nationals.”
Now those players have a chance to be in a large training group of high-quality rugby athletes.
Gregg Valentine from St. Charles in Ohio is a big, powerful front-rower who partly fits that profile.
Akariva Vuta out of the Puna Chiefs in Hawai’i (slated to attend Waikato University) is not tall—he’s only 5-9—but Thompson has resisted the temptation to put him at scrumhalf and instead sees a powerful, shifty center perhaps in the mold of Tim Horan.
Jacob Kleist out of Elkhorn in Wisconsin is a bulky openside flanker who might also break the mold but can certainly handle himself.
At scrumhalf Matt Chevalier, younger brother of Indiana standout and capped 7s player Will, has been impressive and he and Declan Cadden (US eligible, playing in Ireland) both bring a high-level understanding of the game to the position.
In the pack Sederik Saxon is a multi-skilled big man and he is one of three forwards at 6-5 or taller (Clayton’s Cort Schmidlin and Regis Jesuit’s Alex Plank are the other two).
Leadership in this group will be very important, and it’s interesting that Vuta, kind of a quiet sort, has emerged as the leader.
“Vuta’s the captain; the players love him,” said Thompson. “There’s just something about him. When he got into Waikato he posted a video just thanking every college that gave him a tour, he’s just a class act.”
This will be a bit of a cauldron that EIRA finds itself in, but that’s kind of the point. You want to compete at the next level, play somebody difficult. Three games in the space of a week on foreign soil will do that.
UPDATE: They won their opener 94-`5.
Checking in with @EagleImpactAcad pic.twitter.com/4LoEEA8I5b
— Alex Goff (@goffrugbyreport) June 27, 2023
