A Big Step Ahead in Hong Kong for Eagle Men
A Big Step Ahead in Hong Kong for Eagle Men
The Hong Kong 7s kicks off tonight USA time and the USA men want you to see how they have improved.
Captain Stephen Tomasin said that it is true that the team expends a lot of physical and mental energy early in tournaments to play tough against strong teams only to see decision-making and energy fall away late in the tournament.
The team is learning how to manage themselves, and the more they understand what to do in a game, the more they will avoid unnecessary bouncing around. But it's also about knowing who is on the field with you, and adjusting the game plan on the fly.
"We're playing," Tomasin told GRR. "We're now evolving our attack into this constantly decision-making style. And so when you do have a little bit of size, or you don't have it, you're thinking how you unlock teams will change slightly. But by being able to make those decisions live like you can unlock it either way. And that's like ... if someone gets hurt on our team like David [Still] or Ulu [Niutupuivaha] like ours. Our ability to attack should not evaporate because we don't have size. Now, like we have to be able to adapt, and this style allows us to to do that if we're making the right reads in the live moments."
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Size Matters?
Getting David Still back and healthy and with Ulu Niutupuivaha joining the squad the profile of the USA team changes to one with a bit more heft, and, potentially, better on the restart.
"Size does help. It does help when you have someone like David," said Tomasin. "The bigger guys can engage the defense, and. possibly, bring a couple more people towards the breakdown. So we'll be using that as often as we can. But then, you need the guys to be able to pull things around. I think that right now with the squad that we're taking to Hong Kong like we have a lot of balance across the board in terms of playmaking ability, line-breaking ability, and then heavy ball carriers. So it's going to be really exciting to see just how well we've taken in the learnings from the last block, and are able to produce consistent attacking reads on the field."
USA kicks off vs Fiji at 12:48AM ET tonight.
