Meet Jack Hanratty: The man from Skerries charged with leading Eagles

Jack Hanratty doesn’t officially start his role with USA Rugby until January – but try telling his diary that.

The new Eagles Head Coach is bouncing around England like a chirpy, dry-humoured pinball – visiting his soon-to-be athletes at PWR clubs and fixtures, whilst joining calls with Women’s Elite Rugby, hopping across the Channel to Bordeaux to inspect some top-flight French domestic action, and hauling all of his worldly possessions to his new home: Chula Vista’s Elite Athlete Training Centre in San Diego.

Telltale items will be scattered between the 36-year-old’s moving boxes. An Ireland jersey – perhaps even one bearing the playing number of his uncle, Jim Glennon, who earned six caps in emerald engine rooms. Surely something in the old gold, cerise, and blue of Skerries RFC – his hometown club, and where he cut his coaching teeth overseeing an exuberant U11s outfit.

A handful of artefacts in Leinster blue: cherished by the young man who went on to spend five years as a Development Officer and club coach across County Dublin.

The lion’s share of the items, though – will be red. Not that of Munster (don’t be daft) – but Canada: the country Hanratty moved to in 2013, to head up Nova Scotia’s provincial programme. During his tenure, the set-up doubled in size, and started winning national silverware – even as he locked horns with another prodigious regional coach: a certain Kevin Rouet.

Positions at Rugby Canada followed: age grade opportunities, before attack for the women’s Canucks. He’s, no doubt, kept hold of some of the Maple-adored stash he wore at the World Cup in New Zealand – maybe the lime green and blue lanyard he sported as Sophie De Goede and co. pushed the Red Roses thrillingly hard in the semi-finals, before running out of steam with bronze on the line.

Unquestionably, the most garish keepsake of the lot, winging its way from Ottawa to California – is the now-infamous pixelated crimson and white Team Canada tracksuit from the Paris Olympics. By that point, the Irishman was head of their women’s sevens – an effervescent battalion which arrived in the French capital in historic form, hotly-tipped to complete what felt an inevitable Black Ferns – Australia podium.

They never got the script. In fact – they dazzled: stunning Charlotte Caslick’s golden girls before a cacophonous Stade de France, before a battle royale with New Zealand in the final. Whether the silver medal is meticulously bubble-wrapped, ensconced in a box marked ‘fragile’, or simply stashed amongst Hanratty’s socks is unknown – but it’ll be one of the first items he checks for, when he begins to unpack.

He’s got a near-photographic memory of that penultimate outing, and can recite the whole thing play-by-play: overthrown line-outs, an exquisite Caroline Crossley turnover, Charity Williams defying injury to streak 60 glorious metres and haul them back into the contest, and then the second half: ‘one of the best seven-minute team performances we ever put out there.’

‘Sevens is wild: you don’t know you’ve won the game until you’ve won the game’ but, with 45 seconds on the clock, he looked across to his assistant, Jocelyn Barrieau and ‘just knew we’d won it.’

He’s full of stories: a friendship-sealing beer shared with Rouet at their first national camp together; his mortification when an article announcing him as the new Sevens Head Coach stressed, emphatically, that he was there on an ‘interim’ basis – “don’t worry, guys: this is just a stop gap”; how quickly he learned that values like trust, respect, performance, and enjoyment require simultaneous cultivating; and the ways the introduced ‘chaos’ into training, pre-Paris – to ensure they’d be adaptable enough to leave with silverware.

The ticker tape from that majestic campaign might be long-settled, but its legacy lives on. “What I just love about it is that they’re all still playing. They’re backing it up: half of them went on to win another silver a year later – some of them looking like world class 15s athletes within months of their debuts. It’s a phenomenal story, Paris – unbelievable – but it’s just one chapter in a pretty cool book.”

The success allowed him to contemplate new challenges – “I couldn’t have left if we weren’t back habitually competing with the world’s best”- and his much-coveted signature was promptly secured by the prestigious rugby programme at the University of Ottawa.

He loved his time with the Gee-Gees -“a dream job for so many people” – but, within the year, the ripples of a record-shattering World Cup were lapping on Canadian shores, “and I just felt I had more to give.”

The allure of the Test arena (which wanted him back: he was courted by several unions) proved too strong, and – at the start of this month – USA Rugby’s General Manager of High Performance, Tamara Sheppard, delightedly announced the “innovative, enthusiastic, and outstanding leader” selected to replace Sione Fukofuka.

He phoned a handful of former colleagues just before the news broke – to warn them he’d traded North American derby allegiances – and got nothing but pride and excitement back, even if several of his recent charges admitted it’ll take them a long time to get used to seeing him in stars and stripes – rather than maples.

His own main concern is UV exposure – that Skerries complexion was not made for concentrated Californian rays – but he was determined to (pending visa approval, he adds with a chuckle) relocate: for the ease of pooling and debating ideas over coffee in Chula Vista’s shared offices, but also to underline his commitment to the cause.

“The US players have had a lot of churn recently, so are understandably keen to know how invested in this I am… I’m moving to San Diego – and I don’t like moving! I’m building towards Australia in four years, and – if it’s right for everyone involved – towards our own World Cup in eight.

“What an incredible time to be involved in USA Rugby,” he continues. “You don’t get a home Olympics followed by a home World Cup all that often. It’s a very, very special project.”

A complex one, too – which will require the alignment of Hanratty, the ‘world-leading’ Sheppard, Sevens Head Coach Emilie Bydwell, and every other moving part across the organisation. Symbiosis will be key – “we don’t have the player pool to be world class, independently, in sevens and 15s – so need to function as teammates – and we can’t put all our eggs in one basket when it comes to the club game, either.”

He’s an ardent fan of the PWR – how its infrastructure, professionalism, and personnel combine in performance alchemy: improving each and every Eagle to grace its team sheets – but knows Women’s Elite Rugby has a critical role to play. “We need that level of competition on US shores, and I’m excited to help develop that puzzle piece however I can.”

Unsurprisingly, given his background, he relishes identifying talent – and is well aware that scouring all 50 states and beyond for rough diamonds will be at the heart of his programme’s success. “This country is a Mecca for athletes, but we’re still selling rugby to its population. We can’t be ignorant enough to think that people will just find this sport, because they won’t. This product needs active promotion, and we have to market the Eagles as the very pinnacle of that.”

The Olympics will be a key hook – “they’re obsessed with the Games”, even as flag football becomes one of their fiercest competitors – as will Ilona Maher. “She’s changed global sport for the better: how luck are we to have her? Our job is to leverage all of those factors in making the Eagles the USA’s team over the next four years.”

It’s not exactly an easy opener: his first match in charge will be up against a smarting Black Ferns, but Hanratty’s practically fizzing with anticipation.

Besides – this is year one of a build, and in a transformed global landscape: he’ll be debuting alongside new Head Coaches in New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, and France.

Come 2029, though – the goal posts are unequivocal. He wants a united squad – “Eagles first” will be at their core – skilful, inspiring, and instinctive.

“This game is all about playing what’s in front of you. I want to equip them with the tools and approach, but then – in the heat of battle – be surprised and entertained by how they do it. Performance-wise: quarter finals is the minimum standard. We’re competitive – I certainly am: I’d not have taken this role on if I just wanted a participation medal.”

The new Eagles Head Coach’s possessions might still be in transit – his start date might be on the other side of Christmas – but he’s immersed, infectiously invested, in the position already.

“Just being pitch-side, watching some of the girls in action at the weekend – it really hit me how exciting this project is. This is the most fun challenge of a job going. This is the best choice I could possibly have made.”