Three successive Eagle losses this August (Japan 20, US 14 - Canada 27, US 7 - Canada 28, US 22) brings Coach Eddie O’Sullivan’s 2011 won-lost record to 1-5 and his three year tally to 7 wins and 15 losses. It also sounds an alarm that the Eagles are not moving forward.

Eagle Coach Eddie O’Sullivan
O’Sullivan’s 7 career Eagle wins, it should be noted, came at the hands of the following less-than-top- rank teams:

Russia                   2
Uruguay               2
Canada                 1
Georgia                1
Portugal               1
                           7

Eddie O’Sullivan, as well as the handsomely-compensated and less than successful imported coaches (Scott Johnson 1-5, and Peter Thorburn 3-11) who preceded him, was hired by USA Rugby’s imported management to provide the coaching expertise that they’ve concluded US-born coaches are unable to deliver. It was felt that the expertise of these imported coaches would vault the US National Team ahead in the world rankings.

What may not be abundantly clear to our imported administrators and coaches is that at this point in its evolution, rugby in the US does not yet attract the country’s top athletes. Top American athletes - who play traditional US sports such as football, baseball, basketball and hockey - can earn college scholarships worth $160,000 over four years and the prospect of millions per year if they make it in the pros.

These are tremendous incentives for the best American athletes, and it is US rugby’s current inability to attract more of them - not the deficiencies of our US born coaches - that has slowed the progress of American rugby on the world scene.

Despite a won-lost record (7-15) that is far from what was expected, there’s been little or no criticism – here or elsewhere - of the job that $250,000 a year Eagle Coach, Eddie O’Sullivan, is doing. And if anyone feels that the poor results are due to a lack of team support, it should be mentioned that the 22 Eagle players who travelled to Japan were accompanied by a support staff of 14.

Cancellation of the National All Star Championship
One of the most disturbing occurrences during this new era of leadership has been the cancellation of the National All Star Championship (NASC). The NASC had been both a major National Championship and key element in the selection of the US National Team for 31 years (1977 through 2007).

Coach Eddie O’Sullivan’s home country of Ireland has an area of 27,133 square miles, while the United States, with 3,722,029 square miles, is 137 times larger. In a country the size of the US, it’s virtually impossible for coaches/selectors on limited budgets to see all of the country’s top Eagle prospects. The Eagle selection problem was successfully addressed back in 1977 when USA Rugby’s Board wisely created the National All Star Championship.

The NASC brought together, at player or TU expense, the top players from all Territorial Unions (4 TUs then, 7 TUs now) to a central location for a long-weekend that served as a combined National Championship and Eagle selection vehicle.

In order to prepare Territorial Union teams for the NASC, championships were conducted among the Local Area Unions comprising each TU. Once the best players in each of the seven TUs were identified as a result of on-field LAU competitions, the selected TU players were ensured the opportunity to play in the NASC before the National Selectors for the chance to play for the US

At the end of every long NASC weekend, every player from each TU had his day in the sun before the National Selectors.

The National All Star Championship served as our most important Eagle selection vehicle for 31 years. It was both a distinction and honor to play in the NASC, where the best players from every section of the country competed for Eagle status in a democratic, American manner.

With the cancellation of the NASC, this multi-faceted selection process stopped, a great championship was eliminated, and nothing has replaced it.

Concentration on the Super League
The Eagle selection process that Coach O’Sullivan now appears to follow, places a somewhat unwarranted value on players in the US Super League.

A laudatory creation developed independent of USA Rugby, the US Super League consists of ambitious clubs (my own included) from across the country that seek, at their own expense, to play at a higher level. Its noble intentions and efforts, however, do not ensure that the Super League has a corner on the best US players. Far from it.

In addition to the Eagles’ latest losses to Canada (2) and Japan, one event that triggered this discourse was seeing National Coach O’Sullivan in New York City (at dues payer expense) on April 30^th to scout for Eagle talent as the Super League’s New York AC (season record 3-3) obliterated 0-6 Old Blue 51-15.

I couldn’t help thinking that if USA Rugby’s current leaders hadn’t cancelled the National All Star Championship, the best players from each of our seven Territorial Unions would have flown into Colorado Springs (or another venue), at their own or TU expense, to perform for O’Sullivan and selectors from each of the seven TUs. 

In so doing, O’Sullivan could have:

* Evaluated all of the best players from our seven Territorial Unions, with the help of selectors from the 7 TUs.

* Saved the airfare and hotel costs involved in travelling to New York (as well as other SL cities) to watch two club teams perform and

* Silenced the many critics who find what passes for the current Eagle ‘selection system’ woefully inadequate.

Bringing back the NASC would certainly not guarantee international victories. It would however, ensure the players and the dues paying rugby public that all worthy candidates from all areas of the US were provided with the opportunity to perform. 

American rugby is full of smart, capable, dedicated people. They created a national league and an all-star system that wasn’t perfect, but worked despite the obstacles. America has capable people who can coach, too – coaches who understand the value of giving all the players the opportunity to compete for a national team place. These coaches understand our rugby culture and would do it for a lot less money than our current Eagle coach is being paid.

Ed Hagerty is the former editor of Rugby Magazine.

USA Rugby published a plethora of changes to their eligibility regulations Thursday concerning club, representative, college, high school and 7s rugby.

USA Rugby’s eligibility committee(s) have changed drastically in the last 8 months, with the once overarching, all-encompassing eligibility committee being abolished in favor of separate committees serving the college or club game exclusively. The new eligibility rules are the new eligibility committees’ first cracks at legislation.

Part of the new eligibility rules, those pertaining to the club 7s game, were announced several months ago, prior to the club 7s season. And many of the 15s regulations were foreshadowed by decisions the new club eligibility committee made during their existence in the latter half of the 2010/2011 competitive cycle.

Perhaps the most public of those decisions was the Aspen-to-Glendale debacle, where numerous players who attempted to transfer from defunct Aspen to Glendale midseason were denied the right to play in the postseason. Precedents set by previous eligibility committees, including the one that presided over the game the first half of the 2010/2011 competitive cycle, were reversed or ignored.

Some of the new regulations that appear relevant to the Aspen-to-Glendale situation:

The Eligbility Committees reserve the “Power to Amend or Make Further Provisions During the Season In the event that any USAR Eligibility Committee considers it is in the interests of USAR or an USAR Competition, it may amend Eligibility Regulations and/or make further regulations during a Season.”    

An eligible senior club player “must not have played in a Qualifying Match for any other Club, regardless of the division of, or the geographical distance between the two clubs, during the Fifteens Competitive Season.

A common acceptable exemption from an eligibility regulation: “Legitimate geographic relocation for non-rugby reasons. Waiver request must be accompanied with documentation of extraordinary circumstances: job or military transfer, enrollment in educational program, personal situation. The timing of the request (league standing and remaining schedule of the original club) will factor into waiver consideration.”

The last several years, and maybe during the entire history of clubs fielding multiple competitive side, there have been complaints about a higher-level player representing his club’s lower-division side.

The outcry was fairly loud when OMBAC won the 2010 DIII title after pulling out of Super League and DI competition that same season. Metropolis, which fields a DI side, followed OMBAC as DIII titlists in 2011. The Midwest has placed increasingly suffocating restrictions on their Super League sides fielding teams in DI, resulting in the Chicago Lions’ exit from the RSL.

The club eligibility committee was apparently listening to the outcry. New Rules pertaining to clubs fielding teams in multiple divisions of play:

The movement of lower division players to upper division sides in Qualifying Matches played on the same day and/or weekend is allowed only when the lower division match is played before the upper division match. Up to three (3) players may be listed as a RESERVE PLAYER for the higher division Qualifying Match. That limit may be increased to four (4) RESERVE PLAYERS if at least one of those players is a front row specialist. Otherwise a player is permitted to play for only one divisional side per weekend.

In addition to the two (2) match minimum cited in Section 3.2-b, a player must play in at least one additional Qualifying Match, for a minimum of three (3) Qualifying Matches, at the divisional (or lower) level entered in the USA Rugby Championship Event.

Any player who has started in at least two (2) or played in three (3) or more of a club‟s Rugby Super League or Women‟s Premier League matches, or has played in the RSL or WPL Playoffs during the current competitive season, is not eligible to play in any other division of a USA Rugby Championships.

Any player who has played in 50% or more of a club‟s Qualifying Matches in a higher division is not eligible to play in a lower division of the USA Rugby Championships.

There are several more changes to the eligibility regulations, especially when it pertains to the high school sector, so a full review of the regulations is encouraged.