The USA men have a lot to do in the final SVNS World Championship tournaments in Valladolid, Spain and Bordeaux, France.
Having finished 12th out of 12 in Hong Kong the Eagles need to finish significantly higher in order to stay in the top eight and get a place in the SVNS 1 for 2027.
Head Coach Zack Test has named his roster, including David Still, Adam Channel, Ben Broselle, and Lucas Lacamp, all who had been dealing with injuries. And this group knows that of the five games they lost in Hong Kong, four were lost by a try or less, including their opener against New Zealand.
"We didn't get it right in Hong Kong and one of the things we need to do is be positive when negatives happen—don't pile a negative on a negative," said Test. But they need to be ready to play how they play best from the kickoff. Test pointed out that the Eagles gave up a try off the opening kickoff against New Zealand, throwing a pick-five that hurt badly.
"In SVNS 2 don't put you under that kind of pressure," he said.
Under greater pressure from the SVNS 1 teams, the Eagles knew they needed to figure out how to handle that. Test upped the pressure cooker in training, "so that they can execute the best they can and not go silent or get negative. If one player has a negative moment we can't stack on that another negative."
Scoreboard Watching?
The Eagles have Spain, Fiji, and France in pool play in Valladolid, and while all of those games are important, France is one of those teams the USA needs to chase to make that top eight. Doing better than France is in their hands, but they also need to chase down Germany, Uruguay, Kenya, and Great Britain.
Test spoke with the team about that, explaining what the issue was—they need to finish stronger than those teams in the next two tournaments. But once they knew that, Test has put that aside.
"That's all focusing on outcomes, and while we know the road we have to take, we need to focus on the process," the coach continued. “Our objective is to play to our standard and the potential we know we have in us. While requalification is the outcome we are chasing, our focus is not only on the outcome, but lives in our process, our details, our behaviors, and the level of execution required to put ourselves in a position for the outcome to go our way. These final two stops are about showing that response. They are about carrying our standard, trusting our work, and performing with the discipline, clarity, and belief needed to finish the season the right way.”
