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Some of the time the person has had a few cans of personality poured inside him and other times they are stone cold sober, and that makes it even more laughable.
How many times have you heard, this guy should be an Eagle, he is the best (insert position here) in the country. I have heard players and coaches from middle of the road D1 and D2 clubs and bottom of the table RSL teams say this to me.
The 5’7” 200 lb LHP is the best in the country, he is technically sound and it is all technique. Please, there are players who can perform well at club level who do not translate into international athletes.
The USA has 60,000 or so players, of that, about 25 or less of them will get a game with the senior Eagles. This is a pretty special group of players. It is nonsense to think that just any Joe Blow can be an Eagle.
Being an Eagle requires a lot of hard work and effort on the part of all of the players. Not only have the vast majority of these players put their professional lives on hold completely in order to make the time necessary to represent our country, they also have excellent genetics with regard to physical attributes and mental toughness.
These players work their tails off as well. At my team, NYAC, players will play on Saturday, do recovery on Sunday, practice on Monday, lift on Tuesday, run hills and do calisthenics on Wednesday, practice on Thursday, travel on Friday and repeat as necessary. This is just to play club rugby.
The guys who do HP have an extra lifting session, they are on a strict nutrition program, they must attend player tryout camps, they are monitored constantly for strength and speed. They are expected to improve consistently.
The pressure on the top athletes is enormous. To hear some ding dong say that this guy or that guy is the best in the country is a farce. If he was the best in the country, I will say one thing for certain, the person will have gotten a look.
There are a lot of people out there who give a look and a chance to any player that shows promise. If they are the best in the country, and they certainly might be, I am sure they would at least be in an NA4 pool and then it is up to the player.
So in the future, if you are my friend, spare me the nonsense of telling me that some clunk is the best in the country and is getting stiffed by not being on the Eagles. It is likely a case of a player being a confident incompetent. If the guy was so good, someone would have seen it, or he would have put himself in a position to make someone see it.
As my friend Jonnie Cox said, “Rep teams are made up of good players from good teams.” No selection process is perfect and there are some players who slip through or don’t get picked for one reason or another, but those are very small numbers of guys. The cream generally rises. It is easy to see who is best.
If you want to be an Eagle, or you want your player to be an Eagle, do something about it. Become fitter, stronger, faster, more skilled, more dedicated, become a better student of the game. Stop the whining.
Our schools with all this feel good self esteem building crap has given us a nation of confident incompetents. Let’s not let it creep into sport. Real self esteem is when we have confidence in our ability to think and act effectively, so that we can persevere when faced with difficult challenges.
This is the essence of sport. Rugby is a sport, play hard, enjoy it. The confident incompetent is just a pain in the butt and usually the cancer on your team that must be cut.