The former South Africa assistant coach Gary Gold will step down as head coach of the US Eagles, USA Rugby said on Friday, three weeks after the team failed to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
In a statement, Ross Young, chief executive of USA Rugby, thanked Gold “for his dedication, passion and service”.
“He has brought home the most successful record of any previous coach and helped carry the team to its highest ever World Rugby ranking, of 12 in 2018. The passion Gary has for this program is unquestioned and we will always appreciate it.”
Gold was on the South Africa staff when the Springboks won the World Cup in 2007 and then coached in the top flight in England.
He said: “It has been a privilege to work with the amazing playing group at USA Rugby over the past five years, and I want to commend the players and the unbelievable effort they made in trying to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“Unfortunately, even though we didn’t lose a game in the final qualification tournament, we did not get the outcome we wanted.”
The USA played in Dubai after beating Canada but losing qualifiers to Uruguay and Chile. They won their first two games in the qualification tournament, against Kenya and Hong Kong, but failed to reach France after drawing with Portugal, who had run up a better points differential in their first two games.
The US have only missed the World Cup once before, in 1995. Their absence from France next year will be a blow for World Rugby, which has placed a bet on American rugby, with the award of hosting rights for the men in 2031 and the women two years later.
Reports have linked Eddie Jones, the newly fired England coach, with an eight-year deal in the US, to get the men’s team in shape for hosting the World Cup. Sources within the US game have indicated to the Guardian there is no plan to bring in Jones.
On Friday, Young said: “The future structure and support systems for the men’s Eagles will go through reform as the organization embarks on a complete review of our high-performance programs. With us now not participating in France next year it will give us the opportunity to start implementing some of those sooner than anticipated.”
USA Rugby said Gold would “remain at hand in the short term and support the review”.
Gold oversaw the Eagles’ first and only win over a tier-one nation, against Scotland in Houston in 2018. That was the first year of Major League Rugby, the professional domestic men’s competition that is now gearing up for its sixth season but which recently lost two teams.
Gold said: “I believe the Eagles can be very successful, but it will need an objective review of the systems and structures because having the group play a total of nine Tests in two years is not conducive to building the cohesion required to climb the world rankings.
“I fully support the wider review process that has been initiated. Having said that, one of the things I believe about leadership is that the position comes with accountability for outcomes, and I feel that I need to take responsibility for the fact that we haven’t qualified.
“To that end, I am going to step away from the role of USA Eagles head coach at the end of the year. I really want to apologize to the USA rugby public, the stakeholders, staff and everyone who supported us … As much as I am bitterly disappointed at the end result, we gave it our best shot.”
