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What’s the point and what does rugby in this country really gain from the NASC? If one is completely honest with oneself the answer clearly must be next to nothing because in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past eighteen months or so, there’s a thing called the North America 4 series that has usurped the All-Star Championships.
The original rationale behind the NA4, which was instigated by the IRB, was to develop a pool of potential international caliber players from both the United States and Canada. It is a good middle tier competition that provides a legitimate bridge between club rugby and international rugby and is something this country desperately needs. It also makes the NASC virtually redundant.
Not that long ago when Tom Billups was the Eagle head coach, the ITTs, as they were fondly known, provided a genuine path to national team selection. Division I and Super League guys could stake their claim to the Eagle player pool by putting in a good performance over one weekend, but things are different now. We have a better system, thanks largely to the IRB’s investment in American rugby.
These days players must perform over a series of matches spanning a few weeks or even months in order to get themselves noticed by national team coaches, and that’s a good thing because it means they have to play well consistently. The NASC doesn’t give us that and never did. What it gives us is a couple of games for all players concerned to make their mark. And let’s face it, most players can lift their game on one weekend but not everyone can lift their game consistently, and if the US is serious about becoming a Top 10 country it needs guys who can consistently play at their best.
Looking at it from another angle makes it even more obvious that the NASC is a waste of time, effort and money. There are seven territories, plus the Combined Services, that send teams to Orlando. Let’s say that each team takes with it at a minimum 25 players. Setting aside the Combined Services team, whose players have more serious concerns right now than playing rugby, that’s roughly 175 players.
Even former US head coach Peter Thorburn didn’t need to look at 175 guys squeezed in over one weekend. He started with a player pool of 60 and eventually whittled it down to 30 for the World Cup, and the reality is that they are the 30 best players in the US.
The point is that if you’ve been part of the team in Boulder that has been running the show for the past eighteen months, even without a head coach just now, why on earth do you still need to look at another 175 guys? If you don’t know by now who your best players are and who should be in next year’s NA4 squads then you should be benched.
The National All-Star Championships are yet one more glaring example of a national championship that we can do without. Indeed, of the two dozen or so national championships that this country is saddled with, and that in itself is a joke, the majority are unnecessary. And of all the All-Star championships, only the collegiate version is legitimate because at least it provides a genuine stepping stone between college rugby and the All-American program.
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