The path to success is never an easy one, and that has certainly proved to be the case for the upstart Dallas Jackals in 2022.
The newest Major League Rugby franchise got off to a tough start, having to delay its inaugural season from 2021-2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Another side effect of the pandemic was and continues to be, visa issues for players and coaches alike.
Having initially appointed Australian Michael Hodge to serve as head coach, this appointment eventually fell through thanks to visa delays - leaving general manager Elaine Vassie to take over coaching duties alongside assistant coach Aaron Jarvis, strength and conditioning coach Matoko Noudehou, coaching consultant Brian Ashton, and performance and recruitment analyst Darren Lewis.
Regardless, the show must go on, and for Vassie, their goals for 2022 remained clear.
"First season is always going to be about set up," Vassie said. "For us, it was about 'Let's identify the right people that are going to be with us in two, three seasons' time,' and that's kind of a profile - heavily domestic, US, Canadian, 25 and under so we can actually build with them."
Vassie said that in terms of identifying the "right people for that journey," this season has proven positive. That being said, even finding players has been challenging.
"A huge challenge in terms of injuries to the extent I've never had before in my career - just the volume of injuries," Vassie said. "We're at nine season-ending injuries in a season and most of the others are kind of four-six-eight week injuries, whereas a normal season a couple of season-enders is probably manageable. So I think in terms of being able to build cohesion on the field, that's definitely been a challenge for us for those circumstances, but I think the off-field cohesion, and actually, what we got to see being able to trade for some players that otherwise we wouldn't have been able to, I think has been really positive."
Unfortunately, visa issues, COVID, and injuries were perhaps too much to overcome.
The Jackals finished their debut season 0-16 after a final 33-5 home loss to the Utah Warriors on June 4th. The closest Dallas came to a win was during their debut home game back in February where they eventually lost 38-33 to their Lone Star State rival Houston Sabercats.
However, despite this lack of numerical success, Vassie had nothing but praise for a fan base that continued to turn up at Choctaw Stadium and cheer on the Jackals through thick and thin.
"Couldn't ask for more from our fan base," Vassie said. "Really positive, supportive crowd excited to have rugby in the area and I hope part of that excitement is actually them understanding the journey that we're on and that they will grow with the players that we have growing here because we're not a team that's going to look for huge wholesale changes each year, it's about building with the group that we've got, making sure that those young domestic players get game time early. So actually that fanbase will be able to follow that journey with them and that will be exciting in years to come for sure."
The Jackals now head into the offseason with the combine and various other scouting opportunities on the horizon, from which the Arlington-based franchise can, hopefully, take another step closer to delivering their dedicated fans their first win.
You can listen to the rest of our interview with Dallas Jackals general manager Elaine Vassie here.
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