Only a week after the 2021-22 Sevens World Series wrapped up the Rugby World Cup 7s is set for Cape Town this coming Friday.
The USA men's team comes into the tournament quite banged up. Joe Schroeder and Folau Niua picked up injuries at the LA Sevens that ruled them out. Kevon Williams was already injured. That takes away significant playmaking ability, try-scoring ability and leadership, and massive work rate in the forwards.
The only good injury news is that Stephen Tomasin is back from a leg injury he suffered near the end of the LA Sevens tournament, and Lucas Lacamp, who also picked up a knock in LA, is available.
Seven players with fewer than 10 World Series events under their belts will be in Cape Town for the USA.
In fact, when you total up the number of tournaments the entire traveling squad of 13 has accumulated (239), 60% come from three players: Perry Baker, Tomasin, and Maka Unufe. Those three are the only three to have played in the Rugby World Cup 7s before.
“Reflecting on LA, it was again a weekend of ups and downs where as a young squad we showed what we are capable of, but lacked the consistency to take advantage of those critical moments," said USA Head Coach Mike Friday. "Our best performance was the opening game against South Africa where we were clinical, physical and played with the speed and accuracy required to be successful. We produced that type of play in every other game, but failed to do so consistently allowing teams back into games or to get ahead. This was clearly the reality of the quarterfinal against Fiji where after an unfortunate missed ‘knock on’, that led to Fiji going 7-0, we found ourselves 14-0 from the restart."
Several calls went against the USA, including a knock-on called against the USA where the player was reaching behind him and the ball clearly went backward. But the most egregious was that non-call Friday referred to, when a clear Fijian knock-on at the base of the ruck was ignored by both referee and AR as Fiji scored their opening try. (The Fijians then scored right off the restart and once could argue that was a 14-point bad call.)
And perhaps the make it all the more galling was that the Eagles came back from 21-0 down to make it 21-12.
"We showed great character and application to get back in the game 21-12 and were pressing hard with all the momentum meters from the line, but made the error that relieved pressure and momentum was lost," added Friday. "These are the moments we have to persevere as a group and work to win because the energy, effort and desire is evident and we certainly possess the ability to own these moments. At this stage, it’s about turning that youthful potential into controlled action and results."
