'What really has impressed me is the attitude of the players - they're desperate to get better'
As the crow flies, it’s a little over 4,500 miles from Salt Lake City to the rugged Borders of Scotland, but in the icy throes of his first Utah winter, Stevie Scott feels right at home.
On the day of our interview, the peak temperature in the state capital is a solitary degree Celsius. The high for the week is 7C and at night, the mercury can drop as low as -6C.
“It’s so cold and frosty and snowy that we can’t train outside until later in the year,” he says.
The distinctly Caledonian climate notwithstanding, Scott embarked to the mountain metropolis seeking a taste of something different. For the past decade, the former hooker has coached the elite, working in the English Premiership with Sale Sharks, the Pro14 with Edinburgh and on the international scene with Scotland, for whom he won 11 caps.
Now, the “we” he refers to is the Utah Warriors, one of nine teams competing in the fledgling Major League Rugby competition, the latest attempt at introducing a professional club tournament to North America.
In its maiden season last year, MLR was a success, delivering entertaining play, an encouraging response from supporters and good broadcast exposure, while its teams contributed a raft of players to Gary Gold’s USA Eagles. The second season begins at the end of January and forwards coach Scott aims to help Utah and their boss man Alf Daniels get further than the semi-final defeat they suffered in 2018.
“The opportunity came through Gary Gold. I know him quite well and he asked me if I was interested to come across and help with the teams,” Scott says. “I thought, yeah, different experience, different opportunity. What really has impressed me is the attitude of the players – they’re desperate to get better, very coachable.
“We’ve got a good group that are full-time but others have jobs as well. These boys get up in the morning and train from 6-8am, some go away and do a job all day then come back to train at night. They never mutter a word; they just crank on and keep repeating. That’s really impressed me.
“Gary was keen to get good coaches across here. The players are just technically behind a little bit and that’s where I can make such a difference. They’ve not had the technical coaching from a young age; they’re in their early twenties and still very, very young in their rugby development.”
Scott’s greatest challenge to date? Making himself understood on the training paddock. The Americans may lust for knowledge but before they can negotiate the finer points of the set-piece, they have to attune themselves to their forwards guru’s thick Borders brogue and exuberant delivery.
“You get the massive calls, the old yee-haws when a big tackle goes in, which you can’t take away from them,” he laughs.
“You do have to speak a lot slower. Scottish people speak quite quickly, and when you’re coaching and your adrenaline and emotions are there, it can become quite difficult. They live off my energy as a coach – even though they’re not always 100% sure what I’m saying, they know what I’m looking for.”
On the basis of what he’s seen so far, Scott reckons the standard of the league “is about English Championship level”. The facilities at his disposal, however, are much more illustrious.
“We have an indoor facility, which is probably two or three times the size of Oriam (Scottish sport’s £33m high-performance centre) back home.
“The training facility is superb, it’s used by a lot of the soccer and American football academies. We play games in there as well. We played a warm-up game in there last week. It cost about $85m, the facility.”
Utah’s captain and fulcrum last season was their 113kg centre Paul Lasike, a former NFL full-back whose thunderous performances with his club and the Eagles earned him a move to Harlequins. Another Utah man, number eight David Tameilau, was signed in the summer by Glasgow.
There is rugby talent developing but America too produces a torrent of wonderful athletes who fall just shy of a career in the NFL, NBA or Olympic-level athletics. Ex-sprinter Carlin Isles and former footballer Perry Baker have been sensational additions to the USA Sevens squad and Scott expects more like them to flow towards rugby.
“As the sport starts to grow and get more recognition here, you’ll start to pick up more players that don’t make it to the NFL. There are loads of transferable skills,” he says.
“We’ve got one or two, John Cullen has played for America and was an NFL trialist in his younger days. It is happening and as it grows and as people see the chance to have a career from rugby, they’ll pick up more.
“There are players in this league that are good enough to go places. They’ve got a lot of Polynesians in this state as well. Our team is probably made up of 70-80% Polynesians. You’ve got Fetu’u Vainikolo, the top try-scorer for Tonga – he scored against Scotland in bloody Aberdeen in 2012, the loss that cost Andy Robinson his job. There are players here that are quality and gems that are still to mature.”
Rugby is desperate to crack North America and its riches but hasn’t quite figured out how to do so.
The league’s predecessor, the ill-fated PRO Rugby founded by businessman Doug Schoninger, suffered a controversial and litigious demise after a single season.
MLR looks to have substantially more legs, though, and a sustainable future, with teams spread as far as Seattle and New York and plans to introduce three more clubs in 2020.
“This team last year played their first game at the Rio Tinto Stadium, which holds about 20,000. They never really knew what to expect and all of a sudden 9,000 fans turned up. That’s the potential it’s got,” Scott says. “We had a pre-season game last weekend in the indoor facility. It’s got seating for about 800 people and they reckon about 1300 just turned up.
“The way they need to look at it and drive it is that this game is an hour-and-a-half of non-stop action. The Americans watch American football and it’s like four hours. It’s a day out. A lot of people I speak to now say it’s great to come and watch rugby because you’ve got this action and you’ve got the rest of your day to do whatever you want, and the boys are going full tilt at each other.
“Once it does that, and teams develop, it goes on TV, teams get better players and coaches, big companies will start to back these teams. It could become massive out here.”
Comments on RugbyPass
South Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
1 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
2 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
23 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
2 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
21 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
13 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
21 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
13 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
23 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to comments