Hickie on AIG MCAA defeat of Darling Downs

/in /by

The AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans kicked off their Tour to Queensland sponsored by WellDog with a 31-17 defeat of Darling Downs Select Side in Toowoomba. The team is now training in Brisbane in preparation for the second match of the Tour against Brothers Rugby Football Club Wednesday, Aug. 10.

Head Coach Gavin Hickie provided his thoughts on Friday’s match, which was streamed live by DoubleTake Productions. Wednesday’s match will also be streamed at 4 a.m. ET.

We felt we did relatively well in attack. We are happy with our decision-making, but at times our execution let us down. This is not a major concern as it’s indicative of a squad who have never played together before. We know the areas we have to clean up and we will address this before our next game versus Brothers on Wednesday.

[su_attention text=”Back to Brisbane” url=”https://www.usa.rugby/2016/08/back-to-brisbane/”]

We have areas to improve before our next game but, overall, we are happy with the shape and decision-making. We are extremely happy with the work ethic and focus of the squad. Our game against Downs Rugby allowed us to have a look at our whole squad (teams were allowed extra substitutions), and the team selection moving forward will become more difficult.

[su_attention text=”Another Great Day in Brisbane” url=”https://www.usa.rugby/2016/08/another-great-day-in-brisbane/”]

Since we have been here we have been implementing our system. The overall shape of our system was good but needs improvement. Now we focus on fine-tuning our system and ensuring our execution is a lot more accurate.

As players, none of us ever know when our time is up. It is such a huge honor for any of our players to wear our Collegiate All-American jersey that we must always perform as if it is our last opportunity to do so. This attitude has been driven by the coaching staff and captain Aladdin Schirmer. It has been very pleasing to see the entire squad buy in to that mentality.

AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans | Tour to Queensland sponsored by WellDog

v. Darling Downs Select Side – W 31-17

v. Brothers Rugby Football Club – Wednesday, Aug. 10 @ 4 a.m. ET

v. Queensland Premier Barbarians – Sunday, Aug. 14 @ 5 a.m. ET