For so long as Hope Rogers can bear in mind, she has strived for perfection.
Because the USA Women’s Eagle was 16, she has honed her craft on the rugby subject and this weekend will overtake Jamie Burke as her nation’s most-capped participant when they host Canada this Friday night in Missouri.
Her longing to be the perfect has seen Rogers named within the World Rugby Girls’s 15s Dream Crew of the Yr twice previously three years, over half a decade as one in every of Exeter Chiefs’ prime performers and even symbolize her nation in sevens.
Regardless that it’s her performances which have warranted recognition from throughout the globe, the 32-year-old has by no means fully felt snug in broadcasting her purpose. Till now.
“One of many issues I’m making an attempt to be a bit extra assured about is saying I wish to be the perfect loosehead on this planet,” she mentioned.
“I wish to proceed to be the perfect loosehead on this planet and I wish to earn that, present that and put the work in to be that. Typically I really feel a bit bizarre saying it, however it’s what I wish to be.”
That pursuit of excellence has overwhelmed so many facets of Rogers’ life.
Whether or not it was as a pupil, educating or teaching, she aspires to be nothing in need of the perfect. On the rugby subject that’s simple.
Because the early finish of the Premiership Girls’s Rugby season, the 32-year-old has been refocusing for this newest stretch taking part in worldwide rugby.
Hitting a sequence of recent private bests within the health club and virtually hooked up her nationwide staff’s power and conditioning coaches, there may be little cause why Rogers can not proceed being greatest at school for an additional 12 months.
The 2025 Girls’s Rugby World Cup will make that race for the ladies’s Dream Crew a bit of extra intense as gamers the world over attempt to show their mettle underneath the glare of the worldwide public.
Rogers’ need to be the participant that different looseheads around the globe look to for inspiration has heightened in current months.
After the introduction of Sione Fukofuka as the pinnacle coach of the Girls’s Eagles final 12 months, there was a wholesale shift of mentality all through the squad as performances have grown extra assured.
“I’m a perfectionist to be trustworthy,” Rogers mentioned, “and I put loads into rugby, I care loads about rugby, I care loads about my efficiency, and I care much more about our staff’s efficiency.
“I most likely have needed to be the perfect loosehead on this planet, most likely since 12 months one in every of taking part in worldwide rugby.
“I’ve all the time been fairly pushed. It feels a bit awkward to say, however I’d say underneath Sione, I’ve had a bit extra confidence to say it out loud.
“That’s what I wish to be and take extra possession of it. Being recognised as that just a few occasions previously helps a bit as properly, however I’ve by no means needed to be complacent and maintain working laborious to earn it.
“I’m all the time chasing to be higher, and as a 32-year-old who’s aiming for my fourth World Cup, it’s thrilling to know that I’m nonetheless studying and I’m rising.”
That shift in mentality will not be the one important change that Rogers has observed.
Now a 12-year veteran of the Girls’s Eagles setup, the loosehead and the remainder of the squad are being financially supported all through this run to the Rugby World Cup.
It’s a notable change for a participant who needed to attain into her personal pockets to compete on the highest degree over a decade in the past.
“My first USA camp was pay to play, so that you truly needed to pay and useful resource cash to have the ability to go,” Rogers mentioned.
“Whereas for the primary time this 12 months, we’re getting contracts by way of to the World Cup.
“Being in a spot in 2013 after I needed to fundraise, as a result of I used to be a poor child who needed to ask individuals for cash, to now, the place you’re getting one thing is big.
“Easy issues like scheduling and laundry and issues like that, different employees are caring for. We are actually absolutely centered on our efficiency.
“We don’t have to fret as a lot about issues as a result of they’re pre-planned and organised for us.
“I do know this stuff won’t sound large, however on the finish of the day, it’s the one per cent issues which might be making the most important variations.”
Throughout 2024, the Eagles received three of their 9 Check matches as Sione Fukofuka acquired his ft underneath the desk.
Their 32-25 Pacific Four Series win over Australia in Melbourne was undoubtedly the staff’s spotlight of the 12 months, alongside their third-place end in that competitors.
It was throughout WXV 1, battling it out in opposition to England, France and Eire, that laid naked precisely the place the USA want to enhance in 2025.
Regardless of having seen their perspective and software mould to the shape their head coach needed to see, a scarcity of innovative finally noticed the aspect fall brief in a number of key outings.
“The Eire sport, for instance, was a sport I imagine we must always have received,” Rogers mentioned. “There’s only a second the place we type of fell again into the sample of the staff that we was. A few of what we’re doing is breaking previous habits and persevering with to up ability units.
“It was basically a couple of minutes of time the place Eire scored two tries, and the remainder of the sport we had been on the entrance foot.
“In opposition to England, we had been inside one strive up till the final 10 minutes of the sport, after they scored 4 or 5 tries.
“It’s simply moments the place we have to proceed having the ability to compete and carry out for the entire sport, not simply components.
“What’s nice about how excessive the extent that ladies’s rugby is getting is, it’s a must to carry out for 80 minutes.”
The Eagles had been left pissed off as soon as extra after they hosted Japan in California over the weekend.
A warm-up sport for the brand new Pacific 4 Sequence marketing campaign, which begins in opposition to Canada this Friday in Kansas Metropolis, the Eagles squandered a 21-19 half-time lead and finally misplaced the competition 33-39 late on.
With matches only going to get tougher in the weeks to come, Rogers and her teammates will have to recover fast if they want to regain momentum for a positive 2025.
On top of it being a Rugby World Cup year, the Eagles will be under the microscope as the first team to take on the Red Roses at their home tournament.
The countdown to that date at the Stadium of Light is only intensifying, as will every team’s preparation for a shot at glory in September.
Perhaps emboldened by the improvement in their performances last year, Rogers is not counting out anything at this moment in time.
About to enter the history books herself as the Eagles’ all-time appearance maker, the 32-year-old thinks that adding to her nation’s 1991 World Cup win is within reach too.
“It was clear that last year was about building and connecting and growing and performance,” Rogers said. “This year is about winning and showing that we can finish games and win.
“We have quite a clear path of the team we want to be and how we get there. We go through our identity, who we want to be known as and how we want to be seen.
“Mel [Bosman], our forwards coach, said something that stuck with me the other day in our meeting; if we are not here to win a World Cup, why are we here?
“That’s our goal, to win a World Cup. That is what we are competing for.”
