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Tess Feury: Final round of Pacific Four, nursing career, and Tigers
By Tess Feury
The result against Australia was definitely frustrating for us. We say we’re building, and I do really believe that; however, Monday through Friday, we look and feel great, we feel confident, we look world-class, and then we haven’t been able to connect the pieces in a game.
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It’s frustrating because everyone in our team environment sees everything we’re doing – it’s not just that we’re working hard, we’re really performing in training, so to not have it connect on game day is difficult. It’s down to ourselves; we have no one else to blame, and right now, we’re in a period of figuring out the ‘why’ behind why we haven’t been performing on the field.
The last few days, there’s been a lot of self-reflection going on in the team around how we can transfer training into the game.
Personally, I immediately felt like I belonged, and I felt like I was really in the system. In the first half, we had a lot of attack, we were in their half a lot, I got to kick a few times and I had some success from that, got the ball in my hands and was able to help in our shape and structure. The whole time, I believed we had it.
When we went in at half-time, the vibe was like ‘we’ve got this’, because it felt connected in the first half. The second half was a bit of a spin. We let too many penalties in, which was really the biggest issue. We’re not going to be able to win games giving up close to 20 penalties in a match.
That’s something that we need to dig deep and look at why that was happening and really problem solve around that. That was a game changer. We played mostly defense in the second half, we didn’t get too many attacking opportunities, and you can’t win if you don’t score points. We need to figure out how to put in an 80-minute performance.
The game of rugby is changing so quickly, the laws are adapting constantly, and it is something as an international player which is part of our job to stay on top of and understand.
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That’s something we can defintely improve on as a team; understanding the laws firstly, then understanding the ref, and understanding our opponent and their traits, and the kind of penalties they look to draw. We touch on that, and our coaching staff give us those resources, but we can take more ownership of that as players.
I do think that we could have and should have won that game – it is exciting that we get to see them again in the World Cup. There was already fuel to the fire this week, even though it might not have looked like it at times, we were really fired up for it.
I can’t imagine how we’ll be feeling before we get to see them at the World Cup; we’ve created a bit of a rivalry with them, because it’s now every other game that someone different has won, which is pretty uncommon at this level.
Next up, we have New Zealand to end our PAC 4 campaign this year. To be honest, we didn’t need to see their result against Canada to have confidence in what we could achieve. It was only two years ago that we were beating them at half-time.
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We know that we can compete, and we show up especially when it’s a top-four team, so that scoreline aside, we know that we not only have a chance against them, but we can compete against them. PAC 4 has been a great opportunity in general to scout out opponents and see what worked and what didn’t for Canada against the Black Ferns, so that’s good to be able to go to the drawing board a bit.
We’re excited, they’re a physical team, but so are we, now it’s one last chance on this tour to show the rest of the world that we’re physical, explosive, and decisive. We’ve shown it to each other, but we really want to show it to everybody else now.
I’m on the bench this weekend, it’s so competitive, I’m so proud of myself for working and getting on a teamsheet. Over this camp, I’ve played a lot of different roles on this team, and that’s okay, I’m confident in the fact that my role is impacting the team for the better, no matter what number jersey I wear.
I’m disappointed, of course, I want to be starting, but I’m excited to be able to make an impact off the bench, especially since we’re trying to put in an 80-minute performance. I’m confident that I’ll be able to come off the bench and help complete that full-game performance for the team.
This whole tournament has been extremely exciting for women’s rugby. The games have been awesome to watch. It has been world-class rugby, and I think it’s a big testament to the programmes and athletes closing the gap. It really is the result of a whole-programme effort.
The development of the leagues, the WER, the PWR, Super Rugby Women’s, Super Rugby Aupiki, and the quality and variety in those competitions is huge.
You look at the Six Nations, pretty much all of those players are playing in the PWR, so they only have one competition to pull structure, ideas and strategy from. In PAC 4, we have four to five competitions that we’re pooling resources from, and I think that is what’s making it so much more exciting and competitive rugby.
We’re now on week six of camp, and we travelled to Auckland from Australia on Sunday. I’m back rooming with McKenzie Hawkins after we all had our own rooms in Australia, and we spent the evening of our day off watching a movie and getting a takeaway. I’ve been to Auckland a few times, for the World Cup in 2022 and PAC 4 in the past, so I’ve done most of the sightseeing before, and enjoyed a day to relax a bit and have lunch in a park.
We’re staying right in town, which has meant that we can easily go out to get coffee and food, which we’ve been taking full advantage of. We’re all getting a little tired of team meals at this point in the tour… Nicole Heavirland summed it up well here:
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Our mini team also went out to dinner this week, we went to a food court so everyone could choose what they wanted before we sat down together. It’s been great spending time getting to know people in the mini team, with my teammates being: Rachel Ehrecke, Charli Jacoby, Georgie Perris-Redding, Freda Tafuna, Alev Kelter, and Alivia Leatherman.
Last week, our mini team challenge was goal post volleyball, which we won. I thought I was going to be better at it, but the goal post is higher than a normal volleyball net… I kept trying to spike it, and I would end up going right under the posts, so I wasn’t very successful, but we did win as a team!
Being in a high-performance environment is often an emotional rollercoaster, and especially this year and with this long of a tour, you have the highest of highs, but you also have to ride out the lowest of lows. Sometimes towards the end of tour, those lows last a little longer than they might have done in the first few weeks.
I really lean on my teammates to help me during those times, and I think they also look to me to help them. Everyone is a little tired, whether that’s because of selections, or they’re homesick, or they are physically tired because they’ve played every game.
Everyone is tired in a different way, but we all know in two weeks’ time we’ll all want to be back together, training. We are the type of team that, after a week off, we get so hungry for more.
This week, the news about our contracts became public. It really is life-changing. For me, I’ve been in this programme for over 10 years, and to finally see contracts coming where we’re signed into something, there’s a mutual agreement that I’m putting in all of the work for USA Rugby, and USA Rugby is going to put in all of the work for me.
With being able to be paid, I was able to take this whole month off from my part-time job to just focus on rugby. It allowed me so much more time to do those little things like watch film and connect with teammates, and recover. I hope that we keep making those steps forward with contracts, and this is now the standard to build on.
I’m a pediatric nurse both in the UK and in the USA. I transferred my license over to the UK to be able to work there as well. When I’m not in one place, I work remotely doing telemedicine, and when I’m in one place for a set amount of time, I’ll pick up shifts at local hospitals on the pediatric unit.
My career is really important, and it’s been nice to have that outside of rugby. It’s important to me to keep up my career because when rugby is done eventually, I will go back to full-time nursing, and I want to be prepared for that as well. The focus right now is definitely the World Cup, and the contracts definitely help with that, but I’m keeping my foot in the door with some nursing jobs while doing this.
While I’m currently in camp with the USA, another exciting moment from last week was that I re-signed for Leicester Tigers. It feels good to have some consistency. This will be my third season with Tigers, but before that, I was playing on a new team every season.
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Since I’ve been consistently in one programme, my game has advanced. I see myself improving week after week, and I owe that a lot to the PWR, to Tigers, and that consistent environment. It’s exciting to know what I’m going to do after the World Cup.
We’ve had a lot of changes at Leicester, there’s going to be a whole new coaching staff, a lot of player turnover, but that doesn’t scare me; it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before and it’s just another challenge, it keeps things exciting and you never know the connection you’ll make with new teammates, or how a new coach could change you as a player.
Tigers have also committed to me as a player, and I’ve gotten better, and that’s the whole goal. I want to be playing high-level rugby, improving, and meeting my potential and then going beyond that, and they’ve helped me do that.
I really love the community in Leicester; they love their rugby. Tigers fans are diehard fans, and to me, that’s similar to US sports culture. At home, you have your team, and that’s your team, and I like having that similarity at Tigers. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in with them again fully after the World Cup, but for now, the focus is on New Zealand this weekend and finishing this tour on a positive note!
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