John Mitchell's move from head coach of the USA Men's 15s team to a job back in South Africa has elicited varied reactions since its announcement last week.

Mitchell will coach the Eagles through their summer test matches, including the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers, but after the July 1 game against Canada he will become the executive of rugby of the Blue Bulls in South Africa, where he has been living.

Details on USA games under John Mitchell.

What does this mean? Depends who you ask.

Confused Fans

The first reaction from fans could well be confusion. What's the deal? Mitchell was signed for four years by former USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville. Mitchell is paid a lot. And he just led the USA to a victory at the Americas Rugby Championship -- the first time the Eagles 15s team has won a major rugby tournament since the 1924 Olympics.

So why would things change? It's an understandable reaction, and one we might be able to explain. 

Disappointed Players?

Mitchell awarded 41 players their first caps over the last 18 months. You've got to figure that most of them are pretty grateful and have good feelings about the coach. Of course, some got just one or two caps and didn't come back, so maybe they're wondering what happened.

Certainly those who latched on -- Bryce Campbell, Nick Civetta, Nate Brakeley, and Ben Cima -- should be happy, and Mitchell also re-energized the international career of Tony Purpura, which is a nice thing. But more than that, players who have spoken to FloRugby have liked playing for Mitchell. They like winning games. They enjoy the kind of rugby Mitchell wants them to play. It's a case in which the players will be sad to see the man go.

However... we thought it would be nice to show you what some of the players said on Twitter about Mitchell moving on to a new job. We went through a large number of Twitter feeds and found... nothing. Not a word from anyone.

Good Wins, Bad Losses

Have a look at the raw data here. Mitchell was successful in that the USA finished second in the 2016 ARC and first in the 2017 ARC. But his Eagles also were on the business end of the biggest rankings upset in World Rugby history (since its rankings were started, that is) -- a 24-23 loss to Brazil in February 2016. In addition, the Eagles loss to Romania on November 12 was the USA's worst-ever result against the Mighty Oaks. 

If you're looking on the bright side, you see a team that won seven test matches and lost five and finished 7-6-2 if you include the non-test games against the NZ Maori and the ARC-competing Argentina XV. But if you look on the more skeptical side, you see a team that is 7-5 (in ranked games) against teams ranked Nos. 14 to 42. The Eagles have played nine times against teams ranked lower than they were at the time, going 7-2. Against higher-ranked teams, they are 0-3, and those rankings were Nos. 16, 15, and 14 -- just a shade above the USA's ranking of 17. Canada is down at the moment, and in fact none of the ARC teams, or for that matter Russia or Romania, are setting the world on fire -- the victories are to be expected.

Many, Many Lineups

It wasn't Mitchell's fault that his roster for the 2016 ARC included inexperienced and unfit players. It is on him that he's used a lot of players -- 74 have ben capped in 12 games. That's a complete lineup changeover every two or three games. That's pretty astounding, really. But injuries, the fact that overseas pros don't get released for games, post-World Cup retirements, and the January 2016 selections were basically out of his control. Some of that was outside most peoples' control. Melville, who was slow to sign Mitchell and capitulated to overseas pro clubs (a universe he would later return to for a new job), shares some of the responsibility.

However, Mitchell did produce some lemonade out of these lemons. Namely, he produced a solid, experienced, known-quantity roster for this summer, something he said he was gunning for all along.

Relief in the Boardroom?

And here's where it gets sticky. Melville signed Mitchell for four years, which is rare in international rugby and certainly rare in USA Rugby. Usually, Eagles coaches get two-year contracts and hope to extend for more. The deal was for about $250,000 a year -- so basically $1 million locked in for an organization that, as the outgoing CEO had to have known, was in financial difficulty.

New USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne showed up to find a deal with Rugby International Marketing hamstringing his efforts to increase income and his organization locked in to long-term deals with Mitchell and USA men's sevens head coach Mike Friday. In response, both coaches have had successes to point to, but the financial hit to USA Rugby is pretty big. The expectation has always been that the USA head coach should also contribute to developing other coaches and reaching out around the country. That rarely happens, and Mitchell had continued to spend a large portion of his time in South Africa.

So Mitchell taking a job with the Blue Bulls might elicit a sigh of relief. It's not that he wasn't doing a good job, necessarily, but he was (and is) expensive. Maybe a coach who is paid half as much could have produced the same results. It's the age-old argument -- hire a coach who lives in the USA (U.S. born or not) and you likely can pay him less, reduce travel and legal expenses related to getting the coach to move here or travel here, and get more time on the ground to build the game.

Payne knows this is the way. The problem is, it's the USA Rugby Board that approved the last deal and will have the final say on the next deal.