Underdog Eagles aim to ruffle feathers

Berkeley University, California has had a romance with rugby for 122 years. Rich as it is, tradition in one small pocket of the US has not ensured that the Eagles have become players on the world stage.

This week coach Tom Billups, Sacramento-raised and now rugby coach at Berkeley, finds himself in the position Eddie O'Sullivan was in just seven days ago and is asking himself just how he might overturn the odds. This week they are stacked considerably higher.

A hopeful side full of intent and endeavour trying to win a match in which they have been written off, the USA arrive for Saturday's Test with four professional players in the squad and the rest blissfully amateur.

"Amateur? A few dollars a day and no win bonuses," says Billups. "We don't have the team assembled on a regular basis. This week we're in sprint mode. We'll have a handful of training sessions before we play this game. We are always the underdogs.

"There is never an easy game for us. There has never been such a thing as an easy Test match for the United States."

The former Harlequins and Pontypridd player and O'Sullivan know each other well from O'Sullivan's time in the US as an assistant to the team. Billups also understands O'Sullivan will not hand him the ammunition Springbok coach Jake White did last week with his insults about the ability of the Irish players. Actually, he holds the Irish coach in high esteem and was confounded when he learned of White's pre-match antics.

"I think Eddie O'Sullivan is very astute and I thought that Jake White was incredibly foolish to do what he did. Ireland are almost insurmountable at home and a very, very proud team. They are full-time professional athletes. Even with other players coming in, they too are full-time professional. That in itself will represent a significant challenge for us."

Nor does O'Sullivan's wholesale clean-out from last week raise any anger in the American camp. The sense that he is sending out a team with key figures resting creates no disharmony in the American base at the Crown Plaza hotel.

"I think, as national team head coaches, we have to manage our players. I think that's just smart man-management. I also think that in Ireland's four-year World Cup cycle, just as it is for America, it's the right time to do that. We've got some very young, inexperienced players with us as well, to get them exposed to international rugby. It's the right time for them to get exposed to our technical systems."

The challenge for the USA is performance-based. In other words they know what they want out of the match but are not prepared to tell anyone else. One thing is sure and that is they will not wilt in the face of a physical challenge and regardless of the score they will not fold, another American trait. Whether the whole team can last a full 80 minutes at international tempo is the biggest question they may face. Since the side played France on July 3rd this year, losing 39-31, the four-month break they have had has been the longest endured since 2002. That too represents a significant challenge.

"Sure, I watched the match against South Africa last weekend," says Billups. "It's a big part of how we prepare as Americans. We do quite a bit of notational and statistical analysis, so we would have a good data site, as we refer to it, on the Irish team. They've played two Tests against South Africa in the summer and again last week and unfortunately that doesn't give us the data site we'd like because it's the same opposition. We'd have liked to see them against different opposition."

Realists by demand more than want, they are the ill-prepared, amateur, underdogs.

Now, that's not a bad tag to have going into an international Test.