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Jarrell-Searcy on World Cup: 'I love going two feet into things and soaking it all up'
Three years ago, Erica Jarrell-Searcy got her first taste of a Rugby World Cup as a travelling reserve with the USA Eagles.
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The second row, who now plies her trade in the PWR with Sale Sharks, didn’t get any game time in New Zealand, which is why she’s approaching this year’s edition in England as her first ‘proper’ tournament.
And she’s looking to make her mark against some familiar opponents.
“This year has been full-on for sure, especially having my first few legit premiership seasons as well,” Jarrell-Searcy explains.
“It’s probably been the first time in years where I have had a proper off-season that’s lasted more than 14 days!
“I don’t know exactly when it’s going to hit me that it’s the World Cup now, because basically ever since the last World Cup, it’s been World Cup prep for the past three years.
“But I love going two feet into things and soaking it all up; it’s been a whirlwind in the best possible way, so we’re just getting locked in on the trajectory we’re on as a group, and we’re just homing in on the competition now.”
It’s been quite the year for Jarrell-Searcy, who got married to Sharks team-mate Kay Searcy in July, but the 26-year-old Harvard graduate remains focused for the start of the World Cup against the hosts England in Sunderland.
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The Eagles are under no illusions as to the enormity of the task ahead, but Jarrell-Searcy believes that if the squad sticks to their game plan and starts strongly, they have the ability to unsettle the Red Roses.
“A strong start is key in any game, in all honesty,” says Jarrell-Searcy. “Rugby’s a momentum sport, and we certainly looked at some of the Six Nations games and took some confidence from them, like the French game was totally winnable for them.
“We’ve had our eye on that, but we’re aiming to stay true to our own identity, and a real key focus for us has been trying to finish strongly, because we’ve had some strong starts in the past, but we’ve not been able to keep the momentum.
“It’s all about driving through and compound positives, not negatives, that’s more of the focus rather than concentrating purely on what happens in the opening 10 minutes.
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“We want to play our rugby, put our game out on the field from minute one to minute 80.”
A full 80-minute performance is something that the Eagles have been lacking in recent test matches, particularly during a frustrating Pacific Four Series where they came up just short against both Australia and Canada.
It was a similar story in the Eagles’ final World Cup warm-up match against their northern neighbours; a first-minute try from Freda Taifuna gave them an early lead before eventually succumbing to a chastening 42-10 defeat.
Jarrell-Searcy knows that her side will need a near-perfect performance, and perhaps a jittery England showing, if they are to cause an upset on opening day.
“The game is decided in the 80th minute, so there’s no point getting the lead at the beginning or in the middle, you’ve got to be leading at the final whistle, that’s what matters.
“We need to stick to our game and hopefully use the atmosphere and the crowd in our favour too; we know that 90% of the crowd will be for them, but as long as you can sort of tune out the fact that they are cheering for their side, we can really thrive in that atmosphere.”
Like many players in the Women’s game, Jarrell-Searcy’s rugby journey has not been linear. Having dabbled in basketball, cross-country running, and even wrestling her older brother in the back yard, it was eventually equestrian that took her on the road to the Junior Olympics in 2016, where she won a gold medal in Eventing.
Indeed, it wasn’t until she enrolled at Harvard University, where she studied Molecular and Cellular Biology, that she discovered rugby.
“During orientation week at Harvard, I got this very enticing looking email in my inbox and the subject line was: ‘are you a badass?’ and I was like, ‘yeah, I’m going to click on that!’ and that’s how it started,” reflects Jarrell-Searcy.
“I went to the info day, and my teammate Maya Learned, who was co-captain at the time, spoke, and I thought she was so cool, and they played highlights from the previous World Cup, and that had a big impact on me.
“I had never seen women playing contact sport before and had no idea that it was even a thing. My brother is a D1 wrestler, I used to beat him before he hit puberty, and I had kind of missed that sort of contact.”
You wouldn’t think rugby and equestrian had all that much in common, but for Jarrell-Searcy, one aspect of horse riding has played a role in helping her transition to rugby.
“Funnily enough, in horse riding, the core strength there definitely helped,” says Jarrell-Searcy.
“It’s such a minutiae sport where you are always being coached about where to put your hands and arms, so from that perspective, I am very comfortable being aware of where my body is positioned, which applies to the scrum and the line-out.
“Especially at the breakdown and in set-piece, funnily enough, 14 years of horseback riding has been a super good pathway for me!”
Rugby remains a niche sport in the United States, despite the popularity boom surrounding the Sevens squad, largely due to Ilona Maher.
With the Olympics (2028) and the Men’s World Cup (2031) set to take place on US soil in the coming years, Jarrell-Searcy reckons that the pieces are slowly falling into place for the Eagles to kick on and that a successful World Cup run will only add to that much-needed momentum.
“It’s a tale as old as time with the US; it’s about getting our athletes to become a rugby team,” she says.
“We have some of the world’s most amazing athletes if you look down the list of names. It’s a lot of brilliant individuals, but it’s now just about making that form a collectivism that is our main focus.
“We’re gearing towards making our squad capable and deserving of a quarter-final, semi-final place at World Cups.
“And a lot of that is down to game time, we’ve got players coming up to 30 caps who have only been around the squad for about two years. Prior to that, it took over 10 years to get 30 caps; I don’t think anyone other than Katy Benson had managed that.
“So that cohesion within the squad, which usually relies on cross-over players and adults, is really important in building a legacy. The American sporting culture doesn’t leave much to wish for: we’ve got the talent, we’ve got the athletes, and as soon as we come together, it’s going to be a cool story to be a part of.”
The road may be long for the Eagles at the moment, but it is clear that they are building something special for the longer term.
What they are able to achieve in the 2025 World Cup is unclear, but the bigger victory might just be in the years to come rather than the here and now.
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