Eagles should soar once giant rouses

Peter Thorburn in 2003. David Rogers / Getty Images

Having spent the last five months coaching the USA Eagles, former All Black selector Peter Thorburn is sure he presides over a sleeping giant.

It is a giant he feels needs to wake up in the next year or so otherwise the US will never fulfil its enormous potential.

The portents appear to be good, since former New Zealand Rugby Union board member Kevin Roberts was appointed chairman of USA Rugby and former England halfback and Gloucester coach Nigel Melville chief executive.

A tidal wave of optimism is sweeping through American rugby now the Eagles have qualified for the 2007 World Cup and Roberts and Melville have a mission to build a professional, cross-border competition involving Canadian and Argentinian franchises.

The established rugby world has always believed the US could become a real force if it got its act together instead of muddling along.

The creation of a professional competition is critical to Thorburn, and could be the catalyst for the great awakening.

"The game is struggling for recognition," he says. "The lack of competition is one of the major impediments, but once rugby gets in front of the US public it will take off. There were plans to launch a professional tournament but they were put on hold after September 11. I don't know if those are being revisited or if there are new ideas.

"I'm not offering this as an excuse, but after our game against Canada we had six weeks with no football. There is no funding but there are wealthy people who are incredibly passionate and use their money to build grounds and fly players around. There is no doubt America is a sleeping giant but unless the giant wakes up in the next few months to three years, it is going to die."

Thorburn has done his bit to nudge life back into US rugby. He was appointed head coach in April on an interim basis to secure the Eagles safe passage through to the next World Cup.

That came on October 8 in Montevideo when they beat Uruguay 33-7 to secure an aggregate 75-20 victory which means they join England, Samoa and South Africa in Pool A.

Now that the Eagles are going to France, Thorburn would be keen to stay on. His contract has been rolled over until the end of this year and will presumably be extended through to the end of 2007 after he meets Melville next month.

The Englishman, one of the game's smartest operators, has intimated that he can see no reason to change 11 months out from the World Cup. Thorburn has had five months with the team in which time he has, "got them fitter and got them playing more on the feet, which they are enjoying."

But the two men need to make sure they share the same vision in terms of gameplan and personnel before any contract extension can be agreed. Assuming there is a meeting of minds and Thorburn is appointed longer-term, he will continue trying to improve conditioning levels and basic skill-sets.

He recently brought in New Zealand-born, former Eagles prop Bill LeClerc to take some scrum sessions and the improvements were immediate. He will also try to continue to unify the team and break down barriers. Thorburn inherited a team distracted by internal politics.

Many of the rifts have been healed and the culture switched from exclusive to inclusive. It has been a hugely challenging post, but Thorburn has loved every minute.

He wishes he were 10 years younger so he could commit for the long haul. As Thorburn sees it, the athletes are all there, they just need to be weaned onto rugby earlier.

At the moment rugby is having to operate with the scraps swept off the table by American Football. And the two codes are not compatible.

"It is almost an entirely different game," says Thorburn. "Each player has a very narrow focus. It is an anaerobic game. The average time the ball is in play for a game is seven minutes and the average play is four seconds. It is totally coach-driven and controlled.

"So when a lot of these guys come to rugby when they are a bit older, they lack conditioning and rugby nous.

"They don't have that innate ability to read the game the way many can in New Zealand because they have grown up with rugby."

If Melville and Roberts get things right there will soon be a whole generation of American kids growing up with rugby. When that happens the Eagles could at last soar.

* World Cup pools

Italy and Romania have also recently qualified for the World Cup leaving just five places left to be filled. The groups currently look like this:
Pool A: England, South Africa, Samoa, USA and one qualifier to come.
Pool B: Australia, Wales, Fiji, Canada and one qualifier to come.
Pool C: New Zealand, Scotland, Italy, Romania and one qualifier to come.
Pool D: France, Ireland, Argentina and two qualifiers to come.