Time to pass.

As simple as that sounds, it may be the next big thing for the USA Men's 7s team. After years of working on the breakdown and concentrating on using their power to phase-play their way down the field, the Eagles 7s squad, under Mike Friday, should move the ball.

Friday has been plain-spoken in his desire to get the ball quickly to the strike runners, and it's been a struggle, sometimes. He even called out Zack Test, undoubtedly the best USA 7s player of the last few years, for not using his teammates.

"In fairness to Zack, he sometimes was in a situation where he felt he needed to hold up the ship on his own," said Friday. "But now we have the attacking tools and we need to use them. Testy's approached this in the way he needs to, and while, with any player, we don't want to lose what he;s got, we also have more players who are able to support him."

Test as attention-drawer and distributor is still a hugely dangerous player, and a more multi-faceted one.

For the Eagles overall, they have shown flashes of being able to use attacking opportunities by being in support and using that support. They can't deviate from that. This weekend (staring this afternoon thanks to a Friday start in Wellington and the time difference) the Eagles can get caught up in preconceived notions. Japan is small, so let's steamroll them - that's a mistake. They have to keep working the ball to players in space, and then using their size to make it work (watch for Martin Iosefo to go from strength to strength in this).

Against France, they often have fallen victim to getting caught up in the breakdown, and seeing a turnover or a penalty destroy their momentum. 

But, if the USA can get those games done properly, which means staying the course on defense, and trusting teammates enough to pass to them, then they can go into their third game against South Africa with an eye to winning their pool, and bigger things after that.

USA games at Wellington 7s (all times today, Feb 5, unless otherwise stated)

USA v Japan 3:21pm PT / 6:21pm ET

USA v France 6:14pm PT/9:14pm ET

USA v South Africa 9:10pm PT / 12:10am Feb 6 ET

USA Squad:

Perry Baker, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Andrew Durutalo, Nic Edwards, Ahmad Harajly, Madison Hughes, Martin Iosefo, Carlin Isles, Folau Niua, Zack Test, Maka Unufe

Players who played HS rugby in the US: 8

Players in USA age-grade programs: 4

Players who played college rugby in the US: 5

Players who learned their rugby overseas: 3

How to watch the USA: Universal Sports will show the tournament here: http://universalsports.com/rugby/