USA Rugby has announced that incoming Eagles men's 15s head coach Gary Gold will assume his role full-time on Jan. 1.

Gold had originally planned to see out his director of rugby contract with the Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership, which ran through the end of the season in May, but he has now been released from his contract with the Warriors and will join the Eagles.

"I would like to thank the [Warriors] for allowing me to bring my contract to an end at this time to begin my role with the USA in January," Gold said. 

Still Involved

Prior to the announcement, Gold had not been idle as USA head coach. While Dave Hewett took on the interim head-coaching role and Dave Hodges continued to serve as general manager, Gold was in constant contact with coaches and leading players during the fall.

Hewett is rumored to be remaining with the USA staff as an assistant.

Gold will fill time between now and his USA test debut in Los Angeles for International Rugby Saturday (Feb. 3 against the Argentina XV), with a camp at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, as well as speaking engagements at the National Development Summit in Denver on Jan. 19-21.

Busy 2018

The Eagles will fill out their winter campaign with a Feb. 10 clash with Canada in Sacramento, CA, and another home game, against Chile on Feb. 17 in Fullerton, CA.

Then the USA hits the road for away games against Brazil on Feb. 24 and Uruguay on March 3.

After that, the Eagles are expected to play a summer series against a Tier 1 opponent, with Scotland the touring candidate, as well as a couple of Tier 2 opponents. And in the fall, there remains the possibility of a major home game (such as the New Zealand Maori) and a fall tour that is more extensive than the two games for 2017. 

Altogether, Gold will oversee a team that should play 10 test matches, plus two major non-test games.

Developments At Worcester

This move means that Worcester must be close to a sale. The club has been on the market for some time, and the consensus among observers was that Gold was staying at Sixways because he needed to get the Warriors out of the Premiership cellar and also needed to show stability in a club that was looking for a buyer.

Worcester's defeat of London Irish on Friday, coupled with its upset over Leicester a month ago, gave the Warriors a cushion over London Irish at the bottom of the Premiership standings. As a result, Gold had accomplished one of his key jobs — to make the Warriors' position in the Premiership more secure.

In addition, it appears a sale of the club is imminent, making the need for Gold to stick around for stability's sake less important and the need for a long-term DOR solution more important.

USA Breathes Sigh Of Relief

To that end, there's a USA connection here, too. Former USA Rugby director of high performance Alan Solomons, who was brought in to oversee the national teams in 2006 following the ouster of CEO Doug Arnot, will succeed Gold at Worcester.

All in all, this is good news for the Eagles. The players have consistently said that regardless of who is the coach they have a team to build and work to do, but certainly some stability going into the buildup to the 2019 Rugby World Cup is good news for the roster.

It also ends a rather difficult time for USA Rugby, which had been stuck with an expensive contract with John Mitchell (who was, at least, successful during his tenure) and now have a more manageable contract with a coach who is expected to move to the USA and do work on the ground in between test assemblies.