American Eagle Fry enjoying his time in Wellington

Above: OBU and American Eagle prop Eric Fry heads to a lineout in his side's Swindale Shield round two match earlier in the season against the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles.

After heading home for a month to play in the three Tests for the USA Eagles against Canada, Georgia and Italy, Eric Fry has recently returned to Wellington to continue his burgeoning rugby career and try to help his adopted Old Boys University side win the Hardham Cup.

2011 USA Rugby World Cup prop Fry arrived at OBU at the start of the season, along with USA Eagles teammate Taylor Mokate, playing the opening nine rounds of the Swindale Shield before linking up with the USA national side for the June internationals in Kingston Canada, Denver Colorado and Houston Texas. In these three Tests, the Eagles lost to Canada 25-28, beat Georgia 36-20 and lost to Italy 10-30.

The USA also recently won the IRB Division 2 World U20 title held on home soil in Salt Lake City Utah. In a gripping tournament final, the Junior Eagles beat Japan 37-33 to qualify for next year's main U20 World Championships featuring the Junior All Blacks.

Fry, 24, said that the success of the USA U20s is a reflection of the marked increase in recent years of young people's exposure to rugby and opportunities to play the game.

"When I was growing up I never knew about rugby until I started high school at about aged 14-15," he said, " I think it has grown by about 300 percent in the last four years."

"Now I think we have a high school American team and U18 and U20 sides, as well as a lot of youth rugby camps springing up for kids below high school level."

He added that getting youngsters into rugby is key to the continuing growth of the game back home. "For me, the United States isn't going to be a powerhouse in rugby until we get young kids growing up with rugby like in the established sports."

Californian-raised Fry has made nine Test appearances for the USA Eagles including a start against Australia at the 2011 Rugby World Cup at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

The RWC wasn't his first trip to Wellington and to New Zealand, nor was his round 7 Swindale Shield clash against defending Jubilee Cup champions Ories his first game on the Hawkins Basin Reserve.

"I first came here in 2008 with the Collegiate All Americans. We played a game against Massey University up in Palmerston North, we played a mixed OBU side and then we played the New Zealand Universities team, and the last two games were on the Basin Reserve."

Fry sought to return to New Zealand this year to further his rugby development. "I wanted to go somewhere to gain more experience than what I was getting at home playing out at Las Vegas," he explained. "Some of the games were competitive, but we had no scrum coach and no scrum machine, for example."

"I'm also relatively new to the front row and I spent most of my university years at lock or loose forward, so that was another reason to go away and develop further."

Apart from a past familiarity of playing here, the Wellington and OBU connection came from former Hurricanes Assistant Coach Jonathan Phillips (now working for the Taranaki Rugby Union) who had a connection with one of his USA coaches.

As well as OBU, Fry has been training with the Hurricanes Academy, and learning off the best. "When I came here I was hoping to get some good scrum coaching - which I've got working with the Hurricanes Academy and with Dan and [All Blacks scrum coach] Mike Cron and in mixing with the Hurricanes players who have all been extremely helpful."

His American Eagles teammate Taylor Mokate has also been in Wellington playing for OBU and training with the Hurricanes Academy and he also returned home to play for the Eagles in the June Tests. Flanker Mokate, who grew up in Texas but played his college rugby for the University of Oklahoma, made his run-on Test debut against Georgia, scoring a try.

Fry said that the two of them coming to Wellington this year was more incident than design, explaining that Mokate originally came here several years ago to an IRANZ Academy hosted by Murray Mexted.

He said that Mokate subsequently injured himself and was out of rugby for a period of time and was looking to kick-start his career outside of the USA, and like him was now seeking better coaching and more competitive rugby.

Many of the USA Eagles players are playing professional rugby around the world, with perhaps the most well known players to the Wellington audience being their captain Todd Clever, formerly with the Lions in Super Rugby and now in Japan, and outside back James Patterson, who grew up in Christchurch and played for the Highlanders and for Canterbury and Southland in the ITM Cup. Fry's USA propping partner Mike MacDonald spent seven years from 2005 until April this year playing in England for Worcester and then Leeds.

Naturally a Hurricanes supporter, Fry is looking forward to attending Friday night's massive last round Investec Super Rugby clash between the Hurricanes and the Chiefs at Westpac Stadium.

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