‘It’s just USA, blah, blah, blah’: Rising rugby star Bella Vogel out to catch wounded England napping

The Pennsylvania center found rugby early and is nominated for World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year. In New Jersey, the Red Roses will present her stiffest Test yet

Going into their WXV Global Series game against England’s world champion Red Roses in Harrison, New Jersey, on Friday, the US Eagles women have five successive wins and a squad mixing great experience with great youth. Among potentially great younger players is the first American ever nominated for a major World Rugby award.

“I keep getting told like, ‘Oh, don’t let your head get too big,’” laughed Bella Vogel, the 19-year-old center or fly-half from Washington Boro, Pennsylvania, nominated for Women’s 15s Breakthrough Player of the Year. Still a student at Life University in Marietta, Georgia, she has had an extraordinary season.

“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.”

Freda Tafuna, the US No 8, is only 23. Out of Lindenwood University in St Charles, Missouri, she won the MA Sorensen Award for college player of the year twice before taking part in the World Cup in England last year. She shone there, scoring two tries against Australia and four against Samoa. Last Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, Tafuna scored three in a 54-24 win over Italy.

That lifted the US one place to sixth in the world rankings. England are first. The last time the teams met, in the World Cup opener in front of 43,000, England won 69-7. But the women’s game is shifting a little. At the top, the Red Roses’ 41-game, four-year unbeaten streak ended this month with two defeats by Canada. The Eagles contest supremacy in an improving middle tier, having beaten Ireland and Australia this year.

Asked what England might now know about his team, Hanratty said: “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.”

Vogel, Tafuna and other young Eagles show signs of taking such tests in their stride. The key point is that many found the game much younger than has been usual in the US, where most discover rugby at college, as the story of Hall of Fame flanker Phaidra Knight shows well. Homeschooled in rural Pennsylvania, working the family farm, a devout Christian, Vogel started playing rugby at 10. Playing for Knightmare Rugby, a club in Lancaster, PA, she regularly faced Doylestown and their own talented back, Nina Mason. Both ended up at Life, an elite program under highly regarded coach Ryszard Chadwick. Mason is now the Eagles fly-half with Vogel at 12.

The emergence of such young talent is key to the Eagles’ improvement now and will be in future. By kick-off at the 2033 Women’s World Cup, in the US, Mason and Vogel will be 26, in their athletic prime.

Hanratty is giving them every chance to learn. In April, in Sacramento, California, Vogel started on debut against the mighty Black Ferns of New Zealand. A 48-15 defeat was full of lessons and Vogel stayed in the team, working with Mason to launch back play – Vogel’s slashing break for one of captain Georgie Perris-Redding’s three tries in game one against Italy, won 36-27, stood out – or marshal forward raids around the ruck by Tafuna and her smash-happy pals. Vogel does the goal-kicking, with impressive success.

Vogel has also faced Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and Wales. She’s unlikely to be fazed on Friday night but this is still England, wounded by two defeats.

“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, perhaps still sensing a chance to sneak under the Red Roses’ radar. “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.”

To Hanratty, the WXV Global Series “has been a huge success,” producing competitive matches at a greater rate, England and Canada producing a classic three-Test series won by the Canadians with two home wins after a draw in England, the Eagles fighting out a 1-1 draw in South Africa then taking tough wins in Ireland and Wales, and the 2-0 home win over Italy.

“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.”

Expecting England to make every bit of use of an extra day of recovery, Hanratty expected a fierce blast from a team out 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.

“Our job this week is to challenge them. We want to see what aspects of the game have we grown in, that we can challenge the world’s best. That’s our job. I think we’ve got a bit of an opportunity for a free hit, but I love the fact that we’re coming into it with momentum. It’s at the end of an eight-week tour, and it’s amazing that our meetings are still energetic, our training sessions are still actually of quality.” He also welcomed “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.

Martin Pengelly writes about rugby in the US on Substack, at The National Maul.