The Future is Scott Lawrence's Focus
The Future is Scott Lawrence's Focus
The news that Scott Lawrence has the remainder of 2024 to serve as USA Men's National 15s Head Coach and Men's 15s Programs GM is likely good news to many USA fans.
Home-grown American rugby man—Grand Rapids Gazelles, Life University, Coaching at Life, USA U20s, Rugby ATL—Lawrence has made no secret of his desire to think about the Eagles in a different way; a way that thinks long-term.
Scott Lawrence Inks Head Coach, GM Deal With USA Rugby
He’s been talking with the Senior National Team players about that for a while. They have begun to identify themselves with Project Mercury, the NASA program that took astronauts into space for the first time. They didn’t get to the moon, but they laid the groundwork for others to get to the moon.
So it is that the USA U18s and U20s are as important, if not more so, than the senior Eagles. In fact, Lawrence has in his contract with USA Rugby that they continue to support and fund the age-grade teams. It’s a dealbreaker otherwise.
On the Field
From the U18s up to the senior national team, Lawrence wants to bring them closer in a few ways.
Last fall he started implementing a plan to standardize skill standards and training standards among the different levels.
“Overall we want to increase the robustness of the player; that comes from the conditioning, the way you train, building games into your training, and playing more games. We definitely we want to push more American minutes.”
Lawrence pointed to comments from England Head Coach Steve Borthwick about how happy he was going into the Six Nations because of the meaningful minutes all his players were getting.
So American players need more game minutes to implement what they are working on … and because that’s why they’re in rugby to begin Technically, Lawrence said there will be a big emphasis put on developing young decision-makers.
“We want to stretch their rugby IQ and teach them the art of game management,” said Lawrence. “We want to have started that IQ process at a younger age; that used to be something they had to learn later.”
What the different teams work in and how they play will be different—you play based on the players you have. But, added Lawrence, “the expectations and the mindset will be the same.”
How Today Affects Tomorrow
“Long-term investment also means short-term investment,” explained Lawrence. “We want the Senior Eagles to be a team young players aspire to play for.
To do that, he is also stretching their IQ and opening the door for players to try things.
“When you listen to how we coach our players, we give very long explanations to them but the game is happening in milliseconds,” said Lawrence. “Overall we want to increase our team speed and X-factor so we can play the way we want to play. Some of that is selections, and some of that is encouraging the players to be more brave—play what they see.”
Meanwhile expect Lawrence to make changes in the USA team. Players are coming up through the college ranks, the U20s, and from overseas—such as US players who went to college in the UK or USA-qualified players in various pro leagues. Interestingly, it’s a sell job on both sides. It’s not just a player having to show his abilities, but the team has to show it’s worth the effort.
Good word of mouth from newer players has attracted more players.
As the season goes on, Lawrence will repeat what was a successful Tight Five Camp, and will introduce a Playmaker Camp in 2024.
“It’s a real nice comparison in a low-pressure environment where there’s not a game you’re trying to be selected for,” said the coach.
Anthem’s Role
While Lawrence is a very patriotic guy and wants that moment of singing the National Anthem to mean something for the players, in this case we’re talking about Anthem RC, the new team in MLR.
Anthem RC is centered around developing USA players, since it’s run by USA Rugby. But there’s more to it than that. Head Coach and former All Black Alama Ieremia was hired by USA Rugby in part to be a coaching mentor. So coaches with the age-grade teams and elsewhere will be involved in the program, learning how Ieremia, who enters his 20th year as a professional coach, goes about his business.
Meanwhile, the Anthem program “expands the play base,” said Lawrence. With an academy team planned, which should provide another part of the pathway, there is a plan for the future.
And the future is what Lawrence is thinking about.
“The growth of our pathways is immensely important,” he concluded. “I can coach the national team for three or four years, I might even qualify for a World Cup, but if there’s nothing after I’ve left and a new coach has to rebuild everything out of thin air, that’s really not interesting to me. So we talk a lot about being an inspiration for the players to come.
“We have an exercise we do with the senior Eagles We ask them to close their eyes and visualize coming out of the tunnel onto the field, with the crowd cheering and the noise and the flames going off, and the music is pumping, and it’s in SoFi Stadium and the USA is in a quarterfinal of the World Cup. How does that feel? Then we ask them, if you could give that gift to somebody else, would you? If you say you’d do it, then your mindset is right to be an Eagle.”
