The USA women’s 7s team has a chance to sneak up on a few opponents in the Olympics. 

And if they do, they may well do it, not sneakily, but with size and power. Jill Potter has epitomized the type of player who can dominate a 7s game as a prop, but the Eagles will need more - players who can win the ball in the air, win the physical battle over the ball, and force more than one tackler to stop her. 

Top to bottom, Farmer, Jill Potter, and Katherine Johnson are central to the USA effort in the air and in contact. Jordyn Maultsby photos.

Three players seem to emerge during summer preparation - at least from Goff Rugby Report’s observations. One of them is in college - Cheta Emba, who is currently playing with the USA 15s team - one of them is a still-young product of the USA age-grade system - the rangy Katherine Johnson - and one of them is the oldest player in the squad - Carmen Farmer.

“I look at some of these players here, and I am older enough to be Lilly Durbin’s mom,” exclaimed Farmer in an interview with Goff Rugby Report. “I’m the oldest on the team. Sometimes we’re speaking a little bit of a different language. I like to think I have some life experience I can share with them, and they keep me young, so it’s a good tradeoff. It’s fun and contributes to our overall diversity.”

But age doesn’t matter - or maybe it does. The athletic, 6-1 Virginia Tech grad seems to have entered her peak at just the right time. Coming out of the training scrimmages in Olympia, Wash., Farmer said the team might be coalescing around a plan.

“The time [in Olympia] was invaluable. It gave us a chance to replicate the Olympic format - two games a day, playing and waiting, hitting the traffic we’re going to probably hit. And learning to turn on when you have to turn on and turn off when you have to. And we’re also trying out a few different things.”

For Farmer, her greatest asset will be her height. She is tall, can jump, and she has good hands. And while you can go an entire 7s game with only one or two lineouts, you get a lot of restarts. Winning restarts is where Farmer can be hugely useful.

“It’s huge,” she said. “Our team as a whole knows winning that possession off the kickoff. It’s demoralizing to the other team and gives us confidence. So if we can win 50% of our restarts, we’re wearing the other team down and we’re playing less defense, and we have another opportunity to score.”

The coaches were quick to point out to Farmer that winning the ball in the air is a role for her.

“It’s not every day that a lock comes out for 7s! So, it’s definitely a role for me. We weren’t focusing on restarts as a team consistently, so all of our props - KJ, Jill - have been working on those skills every day.”

The announcement of the USA team is in less than two weeks, and Rio is in a month (August 6 is the first day of competition for the women), so the tension is rising.

“We try not to focus on the team selection - we have this mantra of team first. You try not to think about how something will affect your selection, but more how it will affect the team. I think everyone’s bought into that - I’m going to try to do what’s best for the team and everything will work out at the end of the day. But you can definitely feel the pressure mounting.”

And you wonder, perhaps, if the USA Women’s 7s team might be able to put some pressure on someone else when the time comes. If so, Candace Farmer could be a big part of that.