Bella Vogel to face England in Harrison as US Eagles carry five-match winning run
Bella Vogel, a 19-year-old centre or fly-half for the US Eagles and the first American nominated for a major World Rugby award, goes into a WXV Global Series match against England in Harrison, New Jersey, on Friday. The Eagles arrive having recorded five successive wins.
Still a student at Life University in Marietta, Georgia, Vogel grew up in Washington Boro, Pennsylvania, and started playing rugby at 10 while homeschooled and working on the family farm. She played for Knightmare Rugby in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and progressed to Life alongside Nina Mason under coach Ryszard Chadwick; Mason now operates as the Eagles’ fly-half with Vogel at 12.
Vogel has attracted attention off the back of an extraordinary season and the World Rugby nomination. “I keep getting told like, ‘Oh, don’t let your head get too big,’” laughed Vogel. “Honestly, like in my head, yes, I [was nominated] but I could not have done it without the team,” Vogel said, previewing the England game alongside the Eagles coach, Jack Hanratty. “They make me look good. My job is to make other people look good, but I just give the ball to Freda, and she runs through 10 people.”
No 8 Freda Tafuna, 23, is a central figure in the Eagles’ momentum: she played at Lindenwood University, won the MA Sorensen Award for college player of the year twice, participated at the World Cup last year and scored two tries against Australia and four against Samoa at that tournament. Tafuna added a hat-trick last Saturday in Nashville as the US beat Italy 54-24, a result that moved the Eagles up one place to sixth in the world rankings while England remain first.
The teams last met in the World Cup opener when England beat the USA 69-7 in front of 43,000. At the top end of the women’s game the Red Roses’ 41-game, four-year unbeaten run ended this month with two defeats by Canada, while the Eagles have recorded wins over Ireland and Australia this year and contested a 1-1 draw in South Africa before tough victories in Ireland and Wales and a 2-0 home series win over Italy in WXV play.
Hanratty believes opponents will have studied the Eagles’ strengths and weaknesses. “They know the No 8. Freda has been incredible with the carry meters. I would say they know more of our names … We have had good entries into the 22. So how do we get in there? We’ve had great try rates. How are we scoring? I’d say all of this information will be done and they’ll be looking at our defense and trying to test us in new ways. They’ve got multiple kickers on the field. They’ve got lots of speed on the field. So they’ll be challenging us in a way that other teams maybe haven’t or look to exploit some of the weaknesses that we don’t even know we have yet, and that’s the great test for Friday. What do we think they’re going to do, and how do we stop it? And that’s what’s exciting for me and for the players.” He added that the WXV Global Series “has been a huge success,” producing a higher rate of competitive matches and cited England and Canada’s three-Test series won by the Canadians and the Eagles’ recent series results.
Hanratty also acknowledged England’s credentials and recent history. “England are a brilliant rugby team,” Hanratty said. “They won 40 games on the trot. They won a Rugby World Cup while doing it, and at times they were untested in certain areas. We’ve been able to grind out wins against teams that have beaten us quite comfortably over the last number of years, and the bookies would say would have again, and we’ve had some really great moments.” He warned England would use extra recovery time and expected them to seek not only a win but to “not only show the world that they’re still number one, and to do that would be not only winning the game but showing dominance in everything.”
Vogel made her international debut in April in Sacramento against New Zealand’s Black Ferns, a match the Eagles lost 48-15; she remained in the squad and combined with Mason in attack, notably producing a slashing break that led to one of captain Georgie Perris-Redding’s three tries in the 36-27 win over Italy. Vogel handles goal-kicking, has faced Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and Wales, and voiced belief in the team’s credentials ahead of England: “I definitely think that England’s gonna be a tough game, and I think that all their fans are gonna be like, ‘Oh, it’s just USA, blah blah blah,’” Vogel said. “I remember there was a post, and it was like, ’Canada, England, and USA are the only teams that haven’t, like. lost a game’ [in WXV]. And people in the comments were like, ‘Oh, why would you compare England to USA?’ I think this is our chance to show them that we are comparable, and that we are just as good as any top-three team.”
Hanratty welcomed the occasion to finish the year at home against the reigning world champions: “the fact that we get to play at home against the world champions to end Bella’s first year, to end my own first year, and to end this squad’s first year of what hopefully would be an incredible World Cup cycle.” USA v England and USA men v Australia XV will be broadcast in the US on Paramount Plus and in the UK on the England Rugby YouTube channel and BBC iPlayer.