'The only thing we talked about was momentum' - Eagles recognise key area for improvement

The USA Women’s Eagles lamented their inability to capitalise on momentum following their 69-7 loss to England in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup opener.

Both head coach, Sione Fukofuka, and captain, Kate Zackary, appeared bruised but not disheartened by their heavy loss at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

In front of a Women’s Rugby World Cup record crowd of 42,723, the Eagles saw their try line breached 11 times and could only offer Erica Jarrell-Searcy’s 24^th minute score in return.

At the end of the 80 minutes the Eagles had conceded 12 penalties, won just 40 per cent of their scrums and had even turned the ball over on 17 occasions, the side constantly compounded their own attempts to gain a foothold in the clash.

Even with bright moments of their try, several strong carries from star centre Ilona Maher and consistent work from Rachel Johnson, errors and ill-discipline combined to help the Red Roses streak clear.

“We’re a team in the past who have struggled to keep momentum,” Zackary said at full-time.

“We find it and then we lose it. For us it is about stacking momentum. Right after that score, we came into that huddle and the only thing we talked about was momentum.

“It’s just about simple little actions like that.”

A key period in the fixture came after Alev Kelter was sent to the sin bin for illegally playing Red Roses scrum-half Natasha Hunt and occurred just two minutes after Jarrell-Searcy had dotted down for what proved to be the Eagles’ sole score of the game. A prime example of not making momentum count.

In the 10 minutes that followed the Red Roses registered their third and fourth tries of the game with scores for Maud Muir and reigning World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year, Ellie Kildunne.

From that point onwards there was very little to cheer about for the North Americans, who saw England dot down seven more times in the second half.

“14 points scored in that (Kelter’s yellow card) time,” Fukofuka reflected. “We felt that we had just wrestled a little bit of momentum back. Momentum is so important.

“It was a positive action and working hard, unfortunately discipline is something that we want to keep working on.

“It gives England opportunities, relieves the pressure and it swung against us, which is tough.”

There is a sense that things can only get better for the Eagles from here onwards.

After taking on strong tournament favourites, and World Cup hosts, England at the Stadium of Light, Fukofuka’s side will play Australia in York next week.

Having beaten Jo Yapp’s Wallaroos on two of their past four encounters, the USA will back themselves to get a result and keep their dreams of knockout rugby alive and their head coach believes he has seen enough in recent weeks to suggest good things are around the corner.

“From our point of view (in their past two games), we have played Canada who are number two, we’ve played England who are world number one and competed in both, given ourselves opportunities,” Fukofuka said.

“But for us it’s just being accurate and executing in those good moments. There were times in the first half we had possession close to the line and didn’t get a chance to convert into points.

“The big thing from this week, to next week against Australia is making sure that we are more accurate in those key moments and then executing convertible points.”

Zackary is bullish about how her team conduct themselves from this point onwards.

With Australia and then Samoa to come, there is a realistic chance that the Eagles can progress to at least the quarter-finals.

Much like her coach, the 36-year-old is keen to cling onto the positive moments that the USA produced in the hope it can drive them into the knockout stages.

“We spoke on the field, we had our closure there so people could go and be with their friends and family, and celebrate our moments,” Zackary said.

“We had a lot of debutants tonight, so we wanted to have them enjoy that. There is still two more games. It is pool play. We can’t go into a dark space. It’s only day one.

“For us it is about remembering the small wins. Once we did get the detail right, we also held England.”