Adam Eustace in white with players (L-R) Nick Warack, Kurt Sarsfield, Pete Emily, Aaron Turk, Evan Currie, Matt Rosales, Matt Kuriluk, and Sultan Sharrief and Cian Brogan kneeling.
Adam Eustace is the March honoree for Alumnus of the Month. Although Adam did not attend U of M, he played a vital role as coach in the mid 2000s as the team won a Division 2 Midwest title and made it to the national semi-finals. He contributed greatly to the formation and structure of the college team as they gained a foothold in the collegiate rugby landscape. Read on for Adam’s recollection of his time in America.
Tell us about your time with the club.
I took up coaching of the team mainly through accident. I was feeling a little home sick working at Michigan Heart in Ypsilanti as a cardiac physiologist, and even though I tried and tried, still could not convert myself to mainstream American sport. So I came down to a UMRFC training session and was asked to take over as coach, mainly of backs given I played for Reigate (club) and Surrey (county) in England (outside centre and wing). Luckily one of my main strengths was defense, which was definitely not a strength of the UMRFC backs! If I remember the forwards didn’t like passing to them either as when they did their ball retention was so poor they would lose the ball and be on the back foot. What the backs did have however was a lot of athletic talent and commitment, even to this day they were some of the most committed players I have seen.
Over the next month or so I would meet up with the backs for extra training sessions and run drill after drill, tackle after tackle. I remember one session outside on a cold, snowy afternoon perfecting some attacking plays. We must have ran them a hundred times until it was so dark we couldn’t see the ball. But it worked. We ended up having the fittest team which could always compete at a break down, with a wall of backs that rarely conceded a try and had 3 or 4 set plays which terrorized oppositions.
Any memorable players or moments?
You ask about most memorable players. Well their are a lot, Aaron Turk was a great player who I always thought could play fly half. Train was our battering ram, I remember working over and over on his timing and commitment to the crash ball. Finn was a great leader, and to be fair made the team a success by training a forward pack that always gave great go forward and quick ball for the backs. With players like Wes, Keith and Warrack though he did have the anointion. All very different but big, powerful smart players. I would always have liked to see Warrack play in England as I think he had some serious potential.
As I said, my time in the USA would have been all the poorer without UMRFC so I thank you.
What are you doing now?
I am now back in England as physical therapist. Still involved in rugby though of course, working for England U16, and one of the top rugby private schools in the country ‘Wellington College’, with which I was lucky enough to take part at the London 7’s at Twickenham last year.
I wish UMRFC lots of success, and will try to make my way back and watch a game in the near future.
