No Letup for USA 7s Men

03.27.2026Eagles

Winners in Montevideo (along with Argentina) the USA wants more. Photo Enzo Santos.

Author: Alex Goff

So job #1 is checked off, the USA Men's 7s team has qualified for the SVNS Championship Series, but that doesn't mean there isn't work to do for the USA Men's 7s team.

This weekend in Sao Paulo the Eagles will want to finish strong, and get better; they don't want to go through the motions.

"Yes, we won, but there were some things that weren't necessarily pretty and not up to the standard that we expect from ourselves," said Head Coach Zack Test. "So it's about coming out and raising our standard to the next level. It's also about getting some guys some more game, come this weekend, and seeing how they really can learn from their previous performance in Montevideo, and see how well they can progress here this weekend in Sao Paulo."

Next after this is Hong Kong with the teams from the SVNS 1 series, so it will only get harder. Test said he wants selections for that tournament to be very difficult.

"What I'm really hoping for," he said, "is ... that everyone kind of raises their standard, and it'll make it tough on me to who to pick for the 13."

He also has to manage bodies.

Last week was physically taxing. The Eagles were up for it, but it wasn't easy.

"It was definitely a physical tournament, especially on one where you've already played everybody in that tournament, and you've kind of got an idea of what everyone's tendencies are."

Test added that he felt that the USA team had a target on their back.

"Teams wanted to come out and see if they can bully us, and, you know, one thing that we pride ourselves on is being able to match and exceed the physicality that whatever team throws at us,," the coach said.

So it wasn't a surprise that teams smashed into them.

That, along with wet weather made for a bit of a closed down tournament—not as much free-flowing rugby.

"It was always going to be a little bit more through the middle, through the trenches type thing. So we adjusted our game plans accordingly," Test added.

One of the weird things about Montevideo was the long, very long sequences of play. You don't see a lot of sequences longer than a minute because usually someone slips up by then.

But there were a few very long periods of uninterrupted play, which saps energy.

"We prepare players back in training [for that]," said Test. "We do a lot of interval cycles where we try and put the ball in play for more than two minutes, so they're used to having to deal with that fatigue, that foggy brain, and the physical aspects of having to play for that long. We always try and prepare our players to be able to play for being ruthless for 30 seconds, or having to have the demands of the game for over two minutes. And, you know, one thing I'm really proud of the boys is, especially in that Germany game, I mean, there was a sequence where the ball was in play for three minutes."

That is a long time. The sequence ended with a USA try.

USA plays in the Sao Paulo 7s this weekend to wrap up SVNS 2, and they will be looking to stay on top.