The United States finished 2nd at the Singapore 7s, putting in yet another consistently good, and at times spectacular performance.

Top to bottom, Baker is a star. Tomasin had a breakout tournamnt. Hughs is all business. Martin Seras Lima photos.

As they did a week ago, the Eagles didn’t produce a single bad game, and along the way defeated Wales, Scotland, Fiji, and Australia. They lost by a try to New Zealand, and then lost by a try at the end of the final to the Cinderella Canada team in the first all-North America World Series final.

For the Canadians, this weekend was a message to their home country that the team, with a bit of support and backing, could be great. For the USA, this tournament was about taking a few steps forward, and that the Eagles did. 

The weekend began with a fairly dominant 35-19 victory over Wales. In that game, Perry Baker scored a try from basically his own tryline, during which he beat three Welsh players, and he also scored a nice one running in support of Martin Iosefo. 

The next game was 33-26 over Scotland, and while it was 12-12 at halftime, the Eagles were generally in control. Baker scored a brilliant try, getting a tap pass out to the wing and cutting through to score from 90 meters. 

In the second half, the Eagles produced as pretty a team try as you’d want to see. It started with Danny Barrett taking a run up the right side. He was tackled and Madison Hughes and Ben Pinkelman cleared out. Pinkelman passed out to Stephen Tomasin, who passed to Iosefo, who passed to Niua, and then out to Baker. The wing pulled out of one tackle and beat two others before offloading to Iosefo in support. He ran from midfield to the Scotland 22 before passing to Niua, who cut back, drew the final, desperate Scottish defender, and passed to Tomasin to finish it off.

It was beautiful, and highlighted the USA’s support running on the weekend. It was also yet another try for Tomasin, who had started to realize that taking a pass at pace means he can pin his ears back and run. Tomasin showed much more confidence on attack in this tournament.

Barrett then scored. Scotland answered, and finally Baker put it away when he picked up a grubber from Niua, right off the ground, at full gallop.

The pool play loss to New Zealand was a bit of a disappointment, but the next day was full of good news. The Eagles dominated Fiji by never letting them see the ball, and using all of their weapons. Baker was smart to not try to beat every Fijian defender, and as a result Tomasin and Pinkelman scored two.

Pinkelman was another breakout performer. Andrew Durutalo started the first game of the tournament, but by Day Two Pinkelman was starting instead. He showed some tenacity in the breakdown, and scored some important tries. USA won 24-19, but it wasn’t that close.

In the semifinals, the Eagles destroyed Australia, finding space for Baker, watching Barrett steamroll tacklers, and seeing Tomasin come into his own with two tries.

It didn’t quite all come together. Somehow Canada, with Nathan Hirayama unleashing quite a bit of magic on his own, was somehow unstoppable, and scored. the USA’s defense, solid throughout the weekend, let them down as Lucas Hammond scored a bit of a soft try to finish it off for Canada.

But once again the Eagles showed themselves to be world class. Baker, Tomasin, and Barrett made the tournament Dream Team, but Niua made this team tick with his little dummies, repeated clearouts in the ruck, and snappy passing.

More than that, the USA, by beating Australia, put some distance between the Eagles in 5th and Aussies in 6th in the World Series standings. They even made up some ground on 4th-place New Zealand.

Can they make it to 4th? Maybe. It won’t be easy. But the Eagles have made it to the semis four straight tournaments - unheard of in their history. They are playing smart, in that they successfully adjust their game for their opponent. And even when they don’t win, they don’t collapse.

Current World Series Standings. Note that the USA is 7 points ahead of Australia with two tournaments to go, and 9 points behind New Zealand. If South Africa finishes last in the next two tournaments, Fiji still has to finish at least 4th in one event and 5th in another to catch them.