Recently the World Series Women’s Sevens circuit has been exploding with amazing game play and awesome action. Games have been won and lost in the final seconds, there have been upsets, there have been dramas and there have been performances that would rival any professional sport. Throughout it all, there has been the commentary of former USA Eagles Women’s 7s and 15’s player Nathalie Marchino.
Talking to Nathalie Marchino – USA Rugby / Google Hangout #MeetTheTeams
Nathalie Marchino has been both an active participant in twitter feeds; live tweeting the highlights, and has also been a key player in the Google hangout based #MeetThe Teams sessions she currently hosts, which gives fans the chance to interact with teams in a new and dynamic fashion. I was fortunate enough to be included in the hangout for the Atlanta 7s, as you can see in this article, and the concept fascinated me. To find out more about how social media is driving interest in women’s 7s, and to discuss women’s rugby in general I was privileged to speak with Nathalie recently, to get her take on these areas.
Nathalie Marchino and I began by looking at her rugby background, and what playing for USA Rugby meant to her “I started playing in 2005, I originally was a basketball player. I’m originally from Switzerland, I came to the USA to play basketball in college, I was division 1 basketball player, and through a friend I found rugby. She played rugby after our basketball season ended, and introduced me to a friend of hers who used to be an active player on the New York rugby squad. I moved to DC after my basketball career ended, I was hoping to play professional basketball but I blew out my knee, so I wasn’t able to pursue that.”
“I moved to DC and ended up meeting a variety of different rugby players. The way that I tell this story was I was basically kidnapped into rugby” Nathalie says with a chuckle “I went to a rugby game, and I met a couple of rugby players who kept trying to pressure me into playing rugby, I had zero interest at the time. They literally showed up at my doorstep, they had cleats, they had a mouthguard and they took me to my first practice on the Mall in DC. They taught me how to tackle, and I never looked back. I love the physicality, I love the camraderie, I just loved rugby in general, everything to do with it. I was fortunate to be relocated to Berkeley, California for work. That’s where one of the top clubs for women at the time [was based], their head coach was the national team head coach as well. So a really good career move, both professionally well as rugby wise, I was under her wing from that point on. I think I entered the national team in 2006 and I never looked back.”
“I really wish I’d found rugby earlier in my life, it’s opened so many doors for me, I’ve met so many great people through it and had some of the best experiences in my life through it.”
I asked Nathalie Marchino what her involvement in the USA Rugby scene, and the World Series Women’s Sevens scene is now. “What happened with my particular situation was last year I was involved with the USA Rugby residency programme. I’ve been in the US for about 16 years this summer, and when I first got recruited into the residency programme [the management team] were aware of my citizenship situation. Unfortunately with the changes in rules with the IRB I became ineligible for selection to play with the US, so they [USA Rugby] were unable to renew my contract. Originally the rules were only going to affect me in the year preceding the olympics, but with the rule changes I was going to be ineligible in the next season. The decision was made not to renew my contract, as I was non US citizen. So at this point, unfortunately for me, I’m now an outsider looking in. It was a bit of a tough transition, but I love rugby, I think womens rugby is really only just starting to take off. The way New Zealand and Australia are playing right now I think we’re just starting to get the support we need, there’s a real opportunity to develop rugby into a huge spectator sport. Even though I can’t play at the moment, It’s been important for me to keep involved in any way I can, I really want to be a part of the growth, and try to help each programme develop.”
“That’s one of the reason I do the Meet The Team hangouts, I think that it’s must a matter of time until people realise how great a spectator sport that Sevens rugby is, both on the male and female side.”
This comment neatly segue ways into the next part of the conversation, where we looked at how Nathalie has been able to use social media to leverage fan engagement. Nathalie has something of a unique perspective on social media, having been an employee of Google prior to becoming a rugby player, and working within Google as the Hangout products were being developed. “I think [Hangouts] are the coolest thing, I have family in Switzerland and a brother in Canada, so this is kind of like Skype but you can have up to 10 people on one call. I became familiar with the product on a personal level, but I just think that having watched the product develop, I saw an opportunity for people to really get to know the players on a more personal level.”
“We did the Canada [Women’s Sevens team] hangout and it was super successful. They were a great bunch of girls, and there’s a huge following in Canada. For me it was an opportunity to get to know them. I played against [Canadian captain Jen] Kish for I think the last seven years and I’ve never known her on a personal level, so it was great to get her on a call and see her in her element, and around her team mates, in a really comfortable situation. I really think people can get a lot of value out of these conversations and get an understanding of what each country is going through.”
One of the questions that was posed in the Atlanta Hangout that intrigued me, and that I wanted to spin back on Nathalie, was looking at social media, particularly Twitter, and having so many women’s teams and players active on twitter, was this making women’s rugby more accessible to fans? “Yeah definitely, and again full disclosure I now work for Twitter.” Nathalie says with a laugh “So all the different avenues here. When I was with the national team we saw a lot of value Twitter, we considered it a second screen to TV when it comes to sports. A lot of the conversations around sporting events happen on Twitter in real time, people really connect, they get really passionate about what is going on.”
“I think there’s a real opportunity for rugby players to become a bigger part of their community by connecting with their fans. There’s a huge opportunity to leverage the women’s sport, with players like Mandy Marchak, Jennifer Kish and Kayla McAlister doing a great job being active on Twitter, as does the US Team.”
Having watched the Brazil 7s over the weekend I got a real sense of how active these players are on social media, with Jen Kish responding to posts I made about her sporting ability, and being able to interact with Kayla McAlister. Many of the players and teams actively participate in conversations with fans, responding and retweeting comments made about them. It gives a real sense of being a part of something real, something that is happening right in front of you. Kish absolutely destroyed a Spanish player in a tackle, I commented as such, and shortly after received a favourite from Kish herself, which made my day. You get a feeling that the players actually appreciate what you say, and they can express this in their own fashion.
I asked Nathalie if there has been any standout moments in the World Series Women’s Sevens 2014 so far “I think the thing that’s been most interesting for me has been looking at how the programmes have changed. One thing is that The Netherlands, Canada, the US really embraced this Olympic pool immediately and created dedicated professional programmes around both their male and female athletes. I’m really excited to see New Zealand and Australia, those top tier programmes, joining that moment, it’s only going to make the game better. As an athlete I really appreciate good, positive performances, and I’ve always been a huge fan of New Zealand rugby. Rugby is a part of their DNA, it’s a sport they pick up at an early age so their skill level is just so high.”
“So for me, I thought New Zealand last year was really dominant. I thought their World Cup win was well deserved, and one that was a long time coming. To see a performance like the final in Dubai, with Australia and New Zealand battling it out at such a high level was really inspiring, and this was only four months out from the World Cup.”
Nathalie also looked at the future of the Sevens circuit “I know there’s a lot of pressure on the womens circuit to become a ten stop series like the mens circuit. I know some countries are very enthusiastic about having a round in their country, but we need to develop the support. Rugby and in particular women’s rugby, has a huge market there. This is one of the few sports for women where the mens side and the womens side are exactly the same. So there’s a huge opportunity to build that excitement around the womens sport, we just have to find the right mix and the right athletes.”
It was a real pleasure to talk with Nathalie, I’m sure as the series develops there will be many opportunities to see her engaging with fans and the game in some aspect, and I look forward to seeing more Meet the Team hangouts. To find out more about what Nathalie is planning, and when the hangouts are happening, follow her here on her Twitter feed. My deepest thanks to Nathalie for her time,
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Main Photo Credit: Via Google+
