Short-Term and Long-Term Issues Exposed for USA Men
Short-Term and Long-Term Issues Exposed for USA Men
Coming out of Dubai the USA Men's 7s team has to be feeling frustrated.
They finished 0-5 and in 12th place out of 12, and while Dubai has often been a difficult tournament for the Eagles, this was especially tough. GRR checked in with new Head Coach Simon Amor and suggested that the time zone difference (12 hours) can be a factor. Amor dismissed that excuse and talked more about performance.
"There were glimpses of the team playing to its potential, but only glimpses," said Amor. "Ultimately there were a number of factors for the inconsistency which were always going to be the case. Firstly you don't know what you don't know, and although you can talk about what it will be like in terms of the intensity and speed of the World Series, you have to experience it to appreciate it."
That is certainly something most international players talk about—you have to be there.
"The five debutants will be better for this and now they appreciate the importance of the attention to detail in training and the required level of training standards," added Amor.
Amor also pointed to this being the beginning of a long process, and that the process not only includes performance, but developing leadership.
"As part of the long-term aim to win a medal at LA, we are changing how we play," said Amore. "Tese principles and habits are not ingrained yet and break down under pressure and fatigue. The encouraging point is when we did play this new style we looked excellent. The leadership with the team is a big area for development. It wasn't just the losing of caps [with retirements], it was the losing of leaders, players who can help keep the team on track when they are going well on the pitch and get them back on track when they are straying off. This is a big area for us to keep working on."
All of that stuff is long-term stuff. The players will improve by doing and will be forged in the SVNS World Series fire.
But there is some stuff that can be addressed this week as the USA team looks to Cape Town. Interestingly, Cape Town has changed the tournament format, switching to four groups of three teams, so each team gets two pool games, not three. This is so they can fit both the men's and the women's tournaments in one field. The USA plays France and New Zealand on Day One, so things don't get any easier for them.
"Kickoff receipt was a challenge at the Olympics and we were poor in Dubai," said Amor about the specific technical issues the team is facing. "I learnt a lot about the strengths and weaknesses here for our team which helps with our tactics going forward. We are lacking goalkickers and kickoff kickers, resulting in us having the lowest number of successful conversions and kickoff accuracy. There is no short term fix here—just a technical skill we need to keep working on."
Certainly the kicking, which used to be a USA strength, needs to be addressed with more reps.
Amor added that some players struggled with their one-on-one tackling.
"American rugby prides itself in this area. It will be better in Cape Town. This week we will be focusing on on our defense connections and principles to put ourselves in a better position to execute our tackles," Amor said. "Regards attack we will be clarifying individual ball carrying roles so we can play to strengths more and look when to kick and when not to as our kick decision-making was poor in Dubai. Lastly we will be doing a lot of work on our kickoff receipt technique and identifying the chase threats."
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