PR 7s This Weekend: The Men's Teams
PR 7s This Weekend: The Men's Teams
We previewed the women's teams for the Premier Rugby 7s earlier this week so now it's time to look at the men's teams.
The profile of the men's teams is a little different from the women. With more opportunities for the USA 7s team to play, and with more experienced men's 7s national team players stepping away from major 7s, we have a lot more younger players who have a small number of 7s caps but are working to break into more.
In addition, with the LA 7s coming up August 27-28 to cap off the season and provide a buildup launching pad for the RWC 7s in South Africa, it would make sense for some of the regular USA starters to not play. So it's a healthy dose of players working to get USA Head Coach Mike Friday's attention, plus players who emerged in Major League Rugby—several coming out of American Samoa and Hawaii.
As GRR is a High School and College-oriented news outlet, we're looking a little more closely at the college products. Here we go:
Experts
Logan Tago get his USA shot thanks to the PR7s tournament last year in Memphis. He now captains this side, which has a pretty solid collegiate background. Watson Filikitonga was an All American for Iona before joining the LA Giltinis, and he typifies the type of player we're going to see in this tournament—fast, elusive, but also powerful and not afraid to engage contact.
Not that we see only that. Former Gonzaga HS standout Owen Sheehy is a smart distributor and playmaker. Recent Mount St. Mary's star is a silky, elusive runner. Penn State speedster Jesse Capriotti is exactly that—very fast.
The Experts also boast Terran Meek, who will join his Louisville coach Emil Walton on the team (Walton is an assistant coach) is kind of a take-charge player, while Kutztown's Kekoa Kauwe recently was a huge influence on his team winning NCR's CRC. Aisea Tongilava played for Cal some years ago and brings intelligence and power to the game, and keep an eye on Aaron Cummings (Davenport) who is another player who can hit and can run.
Oh yeah, Madison Hughes. He's back, and played for Dartmouth it seems like a long time ago now. It is worth noting he has been in USA Rugby's elite pathway in some way for about 12 years.
Headliners
Former AIC stars Tommy Clark and Royaal Jones, who got their high school starts in Washington and New Jersey, respectively, are on this team. Clark, a Rudy Scholz Award finalist, is a powerful player with a good understanding of the game, and Royaal Jones just braks open defenses with his pace and space awareness. Coleson Warner (Lindenwood) will enjoy setting both of those free and so will former Cal All American Nick Boyer.
Keep an eye on Ross Depperschmidt. The former all-everything player for Alabama is the kind of guy who doesn't have a lower gear.
Speaking of gears, they also have Carlin Isles.
Loggerheads
With EIRA and Cal Poly Patrick Madden orchestrated some impressive 7s victories in his time and it will be fun to see him combine with former UCLA playmaker Cian Barry.
They have plenty of talent around them, including Dom Iacovino, who emerged as a talent while with Grand Canyon University. We are very interested in how Deionto McMurray, who played at Sam Houston State, might emerge. He should learn a lot from captain Martin Iosefo is he's smart.
Loonies
This is a heavily Canadian team (hence the name), but the captain is Belmont Shore and Notre Dame College product Marcus Tupuola, who, along with Isles, is the most regular USA 7s player in this competition. This is an excellent chance for Tupuola to stretch his leadership legs and he will have some very capable players with him, many of them good leaders in their own right.
There's former Central Washington captain and Scholz Award finalist Cole Zarcone. There's former collegiate 7s player of the year Cristian Rodriguez (Hawaiian Gardens, Lindenwood), who is already into coaching. There's Sione Mahe Nau, who played very well in the recent Collegiate Shield. He has been playing at Snow College.
Former Iowa star John Ryberg is one of those guys who has battled his way to an elite level despite not being at one of the top six or seven colleges. Those guys always seem to bring something extra.
