Eagles 7s Picked for Paris
Eagles 7s Picked for Paris
CHULA VISTA, Calif. - USA Men's 7s Head Coach Mike Friday has named his squad to play in the Paris 7s May 13-15.
Friday retains Nate Ebner, who made his return to the team in Singapore, and also brings back Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Zack Test, Folau Niua, Maka Unufe, Nate Augspurger, Madison Hughes, Perry Baker, and Martin Iosefo.
Ben Pinkelman returns after missing Singapore due to school, and Thretton Palamo replaces Peter Tiberio. Carlin Isles joins a list of injured players who are unavailable.
Friday has made changes in his roster almost every tournament this year, looking for the right combination that could bring Olympic glory.
The Eagles will fly to London May 6 before going to France for the ninth round of this year's World Series. They will return to London for the Marriott London Sevens a week later, May 21-22, while a USA Falcons squad of 12 will head to Paris for the three-day Howard Hinton 7s tournament. The Falcons squad has not yet been chosen.
"There may well be changes to the squad that comes to London to ensure all get what we need from the two weeks as we build towards Rio," Friday said. "However, we have high expectations of ourselves and expect to be competing both weekends, and are not looking at this as a split tour of performance and development."
The Eagles will again meet Canada and host France in Pool D following a win and loss, respectively, against the two in pool play at HSBC Singapore Sevens. Friday's charges' first matchup of the season against Argentina ended in their favor in Hong Kong, and they will have another chance to keep the South Americans from encroaching on the U.S.'s fifth-place position in the Series standings.
"It's a tough pool in Paris but nothing that should fear us if we apply ourselves and prepare to the best of our ability," Friday said. "We have shown on a number of occasions if we apply ourselves that we are more than capable of topping this group. It is down to us as a squad to perform and, if we don't, then we will come unstuck."
Men's Eagles Sevens | HSBC Paris Sevens
1. Nate Ebner
2. Ben Pinkelman
3. Danny Barrett
4. Garrett Bender
5. Zack Test
6. Thretton Palamo
7. Folau Niua
8. Maka Unufe
9. Nate Augspurger
10. Madison Hughes (C)
11. Perry Baker
12. Martin Iosefo
Men's Eagles Sevens | Unavailable due to injury
Nick Edwards
Carlin Isles
Matai Leuta
Kevin Swiryn
Brett Thompson
Men's Eagles Sevens | HSBC Paris Sevens
v. Argentina - Friday, May 13 @ 2:28 p.m. ET
v. France - Saturday, May 14 @ 6:20 a.m. ET
v. Canada - Saturday, May 14 @ 9:09 a.m. ET