Some Todd Clever Milestones
Todd Clever has announced that he will be retiring from international rugby following the June 24 and July 1 Rugby World Cup Qualifiers against Canada.
Clever will step down as the most-capped USA player ever, and will have captained the Eagles more times than anyone else. He played in two 15s World Cups (although it could have been 4), and two 7s World Cups. He was for years, and probably still is, the most recognized USA rugby player around the world. It's thanks to his wild hair and pro-fun personality, as well as his phyiscal and emotional style of play, that has made him the face of the Eagles for 15 years.
He has worn a USA jersey of some sort since he was 16.
U20 Men's Lineup Versus Canada
USA Men's Under 20s Head Coach JD Stephenson has named his starting lineup to face Canada Tuesday at Ellerslie Rugby Park in Edmonton, Alb.
Former Union HS standout Malon Al-Jiboori will captain the team, with Little Rock Junior Stormers HS All American Ruben de Haas as the vice captain.
U20s Get Ready for Canada
Canada has also named their starting lineup.
Kickoff is 8:30pm ET, 5:30pm PT and you can watch it live at this link.
U20s Get Ready for Canada
There’s the little matter of the USA Under 20 team having to play Canada this week in a two-game series in Edmonton, and it’s going to be a tough series.
Last year, the two teams played a one-off, a game that the USA won 19-18 on a last-second penalty goal from Ben Cima. Cima won't be back as he has aged out of the program, but the lon try-scorer in the game, Lorenzo Thomas, will be back.
"I feel pretty good about what we can do," said Thomas. "Last year I got hurt and missed the Junior World Trophy, so I am looking to redeem myself a little bit. Coach Stephenson is preparing us well. We’re building the culture so when we go in we know who’s who and how each player approaches the game."
Eagles Look to Ireland
While clubs and colleges were looking to win some championships this weekend, the USA Men's National 15s Team was training in Madison, NJ.
Drew University has been hosting the Eagles as they prepare to face Ireland at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ on Saturday.
While the big news has been that Head Coach John Mitchell will step down after the team's summer series, which culminated with the World Cup Qualifiers against Canada on June 24 and July 1, the team still has a job to do.
See more on what kind of team Ireland will be here.
The John Mitchell Record
The 18-month era of John Mitchell as Head Coach of the USA Men's National Team will come to an end July 2 as Mitch moves on to take a job with the Blue Bulls.
So even though th Eagles have four more games to play under his tutelage - June 10 against Ireland in Harrison, NJ, June 17 against Georgia in Kennesaw, Ga., and the Rugby World Cup Qualifiers against Canada June 24 in Hamilton, Ont., and July 1 in San Diego - now would be a good time to look at the record of the Mitchell teams.
What Mitchell's Move Means
Section 1: 2016 ARC
USA 35 Argentina XV 35
Tries: Ngwenya, Clever, Dolan, Fry
Convs: Bird 3
Pens: Bird 3
Ranking: USA 16 Argentina XV not a ranked team
RWC 7s Qualification on Mind as Langford 7s Kicks Off
Canada hosts the next Women's World Series event the host team is probably the favorite to win in Langford, BC, as well.
Awards, Milestones, Notoriety as USA Finishes 4th in London
Scotland defeated England to win the final Sevens World Series tournament of the season, in London.
Stat Analysis - the USA Improvement in 7s
It's evident that the USA Men's 7s team is playing better now than it was at the beginning of the World Series.
After three tournaments the Eagles were 10th in the World Series. Currently they are 5th, bearing down on 4th. That is the easy stat. We've got a few mor to look at thanks in large part to our friend Matt Trenary at http://trenarian.com.
We decided we'd delve into some of the stats that might illustrate what the Eagles are doing better, and where they are performing especially well.
First off, Singapore. Looking at the stats from Tranarian.com, we can see that the Eagles are within the norms on a number of metrics. However, they are very good at certain aspects of play.
Eagle 7s Takes Care of Singapore Business
The United States finished 2nd at the Singapore 7s, putting in yet another consistently good, and at times spectacular performance.
HSAA Team Finishes 8th at Euros
The High School All Americans finished last in the European U18 Championships, losing to Canada 13-12 in the final game of the tournament.
France won the tournament, with Georgia 2nd, Japan 3rd, Portugal 4th, Spain 5th, and Belgium 6th.
The USA team had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but key execution errors, which had plagued them throughout the tournament, plagued them again. The HSAA team had an early try-scoring opportunity off a grubber by flyhalf Quinn Perry. Wing Ryan James and fullback Eric Naposki-Abdullah chased well, and when Canadian fullback Gabriel Casey defender failed to fly-hack the ball to touch, it was there to be picked up. But Naposki-Abdullah elected to nudge the ball ahead with his foot, and it rolled into touch.
HSAA Team Edged by Spain
Spain edged the HS All Americans 26-22 in the teams' 2nd gam at the European U18 Championships Tuesday.
The game, played in Quimper, France, was the consolation semis. The USA will now play for 7th.
Spain took an early 3-0 on a penalty goal, but HSAA replied in the 8th minute, when flanker Chris Noggle intercepted a pass and took off into Spanish territory. He linked up with lock Garrett Kay. The Jesuit (Sacramento) captain is normally a flanker and he showed a flanker's pace in galloping to the corner.
The USA team then ran through a long period of phases, testing the Spain defense. A few surges to the line, and prop David Ainuu picked up and was unstoppable from short range. The conversion was missed, and the HSAA team led 10-3 at 20 minutes. A not-releasing-the-ball penalty gave Spain an easy chance for three points to make it 10-6.
Eagles Impress While 4th in HK
The USA Men’s 7s team finished 4th in the Hong Kong 7s, putting together a string of impressive results that, sadly, ended a little early as they were defeated by South Africa and Australia at the end of the tournament.
The Eagles needed to handle a very physical and difficult Russia team on Friday night, and had to do that Danny Barrett unavailable to play as he finished up a three-game suspension for an illegal hit in the last tournament. Barrett was exactly the kind of play the USA needed to handle Russia, but early tries from Folau Niua and Perry Baker set the tone, and they held on 14-7.
Portugal U18s Beat HSAA Boys
The Boys HS All Americans has lost 26-5 to Portugal in the European U18 Championships.
The HSAA team will now play for 5th in the consolation brackt. The American team looks like a group that had just come together, which is indeed the case, and especially their passing and alignments in the backline were disjointed, resulting in a lot of dropped balls, and passes to no one.
Portugal gave the HSAA team fits in the breakdown, pouncing on the ball quickly and stealing plenty of possession. Whether they were making a full release on the ballcarrier, or staying solid on their feet, was debatable, but certainly they were quick and aggressive.
HSAA Team to Kick Off at Euro Championships
The Boys HS All Americans are getting set to kick off U18 European Championships Friday in Brittany, France.
The HSAA team is in the Championship bracket, which is the top level (The Trophy is the second level, and the third level is The Conference). They are staying in Plobannalec-Lesconil, which is a small seaside town in Northwestern France on the Bay of Biscay. The closest large town is Quimper, which is where the All Americans will start the tournament Friday, playing Portugal at Quimper - Creac’h Gwen rugby club.
The trip will include some cultural activities as well as rugby, but the rugby is paramount as Head Coach Salty Thompson. The players flew out of Detroit on Tuesday, flew to Paris, and then took a seven-hour bus ride to their base of operations.
Can Eagles 7s Make a Move?
Can the Eagles make a move?
Well, they can try, but really the next few World Series tournaments are about holding steady.
The United States sits 5th in the World Series, which is a pretty nice place to be. But they are 17 points out of 4th, and 33 points out of 3rd.
How hard will it be to move up? Well, think of this way:
