Patience and Passion as USA Prepare to Face Canada
Patience and Passion as USA Prepare to Face Canada
USA vs Canada tonight in Ottawa is an important Rugby World Cup buildup game for both teams, but there’s more to it than that.
These two teams have a long and interesting rivalry. Years ago it was heavily in the USA’s favor, but it has not been that way the last 20 years, with Canada shooting past the USA to lead the series 28-19.
Ranked #2 in World Rugby, Canada is thinking seriously about winning their first World Cup, while the USA has plenty of talent, but the pieces aren’t quite in place yet.
So is this a game lacking much immediate meaning because both teams have bigger goals ahead? No.
“We talk about the outcome, which is the World Cup. But for me, this game is just part of our process,” said USA captain Kate Zackary. “So the focus is just—beat Canada. We'll get the results that we need at the end of this and that will take confidence into World Cup. And that's just the outcome of this game for the next process. So for us, this is the culmination of the last about 25 days. You have that first two weeks going right after selections and having that tough Tuesday selection going right into that [Fiji] game. That was our first milestone. This is now the next one—how do we overcome now an additional two weeks of hard graft in Mount Saint Mary’s.”
After this game the players get three days off before they reassemble to get to England and start pre-World Cup camp at Loughborough College in Leicestershire. So this game really is about that rivalry match and culminating this World Cup buildup period.
Canada, for their part, are in a same situation as they will be playing Ireland on August 9 in Belfast. So no days off and no dedicated early camp.
Last Time
The USA spent a lot of time defending against Canada the last time the two teams played. That defensive effort was impressive, and in fact led to an interception try for Alev Kelter. And while Canada scored late to pull away 26-14, it’s fair to say the scoreline was a tiny bit flattering to the visitors.
USA Head Coach Sione Fukofuka acknowledges the positives but points out that the Eagles are looking for better this time around.
“There's definitely room for improvement,” he told GRR. “Obviously we also don't want to spend 70% of a game on defense like that game.”
Fukofuka said he was proud of the defensive effort, but they didn’t finish strong.
“You can't have any lapses for the people coming on or the people staying on,” he said. “We have to keep maintaining that intensity. The intensity and the energy—that's something we have to bring to every game; we get up for Canada, but it's something we lacked in the Australia game during PAC 4 and against New Zealand. We just lost all of our energy late in the Canada game. This weekend there's always the rivalry on the line which brings a lot more passion out of people, doesn't it? That being said, we've worked on our discipline, we've worked on our consistency. Canada is a great team with a lot of dynamic abilities. So whether that's their forwards going tight or their backs attacking out wide or through their kicking game. I think our defense, as well as our attack to be fair is looking to match any of those standards.”
Patience
Being camped out on defense was a frustration for the players in the last meeting, Zackary said, but there’s also the danger of being too rushed in trying to get that ball back.
“One thing is just the comfort in our ability to play defense for multi-phase,” said the captain. “We can't just get too eager. You never have to turn over the ball first phase, just like you don't always have to kick on first phase even if you happen to be in your 22. In rugby the beauty is you can also just run to play; why always play to exit? And so it's same on defense. You don't have to play to turnover and I think that's been one of our biggest growth areas [that] we've got so many hunters on the field. They like to go for that ball. So it's just showing them that it doesn't have to be your first sniff. It can be your third sniff at the breakdown. Even in that Fiji game, we were consistent enough to just play our lines, hit a breakdown, get our fold right, hit the next breakdown. Get the fold right, and you'd be surprised how many teams, Canada as well actually, statistically give turnovers by just holding them out. And even if you don't mess with their breakdown, they are a team who's likely to either kick away possession or potentially knock on the ball once they've had possession for too long.”
USA kicks off vs Canada at 7PM at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa tonight. It’s live on Paramount+ in the USA.