by Nigel Melville
Nigel Melville Direct
I spent a couple of days at the Olympic Training Center this week, meeting with the Eagles Sevens coaches and their support staff as well as catching up with the players to see how life in a full time environment is treating them! This week the women’s team were working on team development presentations with Head Coach Ric Suggitt. On the field the focus has shifted from Las Vegas to Hong Kong where the Women’s Eagles will play in their second IRB Women’s Challenge Cup tournament of the year. Teams for Hong Kong will include Australia, England, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Russia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Tunisia and Spain. A tougher line-up than Las Vegas, but our Eagles Women’s Sevens squad are getting stronger by the day and their skills are definitely improving.
IRB Women’s Strategic Plan
On Monday we welcomed a special visitor to the National Office from the International Rugby Board, Su Carty. Su heads up women’s rugby development for the IRB and spent a couple of days meeting all departments at USA Rugby and shared with us the new IRB Women’s Strategic Plan.
Eagles Training Centers
This weekend Women’s National 15′s Team Head Coach Peter Steinberg and his coaching team will be running five Eagles Training Centers at UMass, Penn State, UI-Chicago, Impact Sports-Denver and Stanford. They will have 39 players attending, approximately 6-12 athletes at each center. This weekend the players will work on their conditioning programs provided by conditioning coach, Scott Higgins and a nutrition program created by Dr. Adam Russell. In addition the players will work with coaches who will deliver mental (having a growth mindset), life (financial planning) and rugby skills.
This weekend will be the first of a number throughout the year supporting and developing the Eagles 365 program. Those who can’t attend will be able to access the sessions online.
With an impressive resume as player, coach and administrator, Nigel David Melville took over as CEO and President of Rugby Operations of USA Rugby, the National Governing Body of the sport in America, in 2006. In addition to his full time job promoting the sport in the U.S., Melville has launched his own blog, Nigel Melville Direct, to further the discussion and his passion for what it will take to make the U.S. a great rugby playing nation.
CLICK HERE to read more on Nigel Melville
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