Highland: A model for US Rugby

There are those who will disagree... there are some very strong opinions out there on this subject. I feel though, that Highland has the right way of it. I am referring to the use of foreign players. Now it is not as some assume and vehemently attest, Larry does not go and recruit heavily in New Zealand and Tonga. After thirty plus years with a successful program you can well imagine they knock on his door. We in the US have a distinct disadvantage in the realm of rugby. Most of our top players have not been exposed to rugby until college, of at the very most high school. Having started a new high school team last year I ran into many obstacles that rugby is facing here in the "States". The biggest obstacle was, and is lack of experience. It is not something you can teach as a coach, there is a learning curve that is found only on the field. My goal as a coach was to teach fundamental simple rugby so that none of my players would get hurt. As a result, strategy was rarely, if ever addressed let alone demonstrated. Other aspects such as pace, creating space, defense, attack, and timing are difficult to pass on to beginning players who have only recently seen a rugby ball in person. Don't miss understand some of last years players learned more than I realistically expected of first year players. One of the great hurdles is passing on the passion for the game. Once that is successfully done the players push themselves to become better rugby players. The biggest hurdle of them all. Expected level of performance, how do we prepare our players to be competitive in international rugby when they never, or very rarely are faced with it. Our first scrimmage match was with highland it was a very cathartic moment for the boys on my team. The following practices were much more intense, questions came much more frequently and with more intent. They handled themselves better than many other teams that faced Highland last year but what they learned is they had a very long way to go. they learned first hand what a good scrum felt like they were able to wittiness the speed of an effective line out, and witnessed the sheer poetry of a well executed back line.The only problem was our contact with that level of play was too few, too far between. We won many of our following games which only fostered complacency. So what is the solution for this dilemma? In my opinion the utilization of foreign players is an essential key to overcoming everyone of these hurdles. Young players learn much more from each other than any coach can lay claim to in my opinion. They bring a level of intensity and skill that we can not impart with instruction alone. Rather than frowning on the practice of using these foreign players we should embrace the practice. And glean every bit of benefit of having these fantastic players in our midst. In short if we want to see our Eagles be more successful, than it is imperative that we provide our high school players with the tools, examples, and opportunities they need in that pursuit.

-Jeremy