{"id":128268,"date":"2025-09-08T17:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128268\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:49:06","slug":"usa-head-coach-steps-down-after-rugby-world-cup-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128268\/","title":{"rendered":"USA head coach steps down after Rugby World Cup exit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>USA head coach Sione Fukofuka has stepped away from his position after the team\u2019s pool stage exit on points difference at the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup in England.<\/p>\n<p>The former Australia and Queensland Reds assistant coach was appointed head coach of the USA Women\u2019s national side in November 2023 and had a largely positive tenure.<\/p>\n<p>He led the side to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/tournament\/rugby-world-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rugby World Cup<\/a> qualification with the Women\u2019s outfit seeing immense growth in professionalism and high performance qualities under his stewardship.<\/p>\n<p>Australia return<\/p>\n<p>Fukofuka and his family intend to return home to Australia following the recent completion of the Rugby World Cup campaign and he spoke about why he is leaving the post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been honoured and privileged to lead the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/team\/usa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USA<\/a> Women\u2019s Eagles for the past two years into the Rugby World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe staff and players have been a pleasure to work with and have committed countless hours to move the program into a high performance environment, changing the game on and off the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to thank them for their commitment, their trust in the program and where we were building.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/whos-hot-and-whos-not-ardie-savea-keeps-all-blacks-house-in-order-against-sluggish-springboks-before-world-cup-highs-and-lows\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: Ardie Savea keeps All Blacks house in order against \u2018sluggish\u2019 Springboks before World Cup highs and lows<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cI have made the difficult decision to step down from my role as head coach and return to Australia to prioritise my family, I want to thank Tamara Sheppard for her support and understanding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis team is special and leaving is hard, however I am confident the program is in an exciting position for the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe potential in the current squad and the players coming through the pathway is world class, I look forward to seeing that potential translate in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to thank the USA Women\u2019s Rugby community for their support during my time as head coach, the USA Sevens program, along with the many colleges and club programs I was able to connect with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe future is bright and the next Rugby World Cup cycle will be an exciting growth of performance built on strong foundations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lifted standards<\/p>\n<p>General Manager of High Performance, Sheppard, added: \u201cWe want to thank Sione for his unwavering commitment and leadership over the past two years. He lifted the standards across our entire program, instilling a culture of excellence, accountability, and hard work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis impact will be felt for years to come, and we wish him nothing but success in his next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>USA Rugby has confirmed that they will immediately begin the recruitment process for a new Women\u2019s head coach, with the first-team set to regroup early in the new year.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetrugby.com\/news\/comment-no-brighton-miracle-as-red-roses-recover-to-beat-wallaroos-in-result-that-ends-ilona-maher-and-usas-world-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No \u2018Brighton Miracle\u2019 as Red Roses recover to beat Wallaroos in result that ends Ilona Maher and USA\u2019s World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USA head coach Sione Fukofuka has stepped away from his position after the team\u2019s pool stage exit on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,44,760,15131,85,2957],"class_list":{"0":"post-128268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-rugby-world-cup","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}