Some notes from the USA men’s 7s team trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo, in now particular order.

In Hong Kong the Eagles made the top eight for the fourth tournament in a row in Hong Kong, but then missed the top eight in Tokyo for the first time since Dubai.

The USA beat Canada, who ended up beating New Zealand and finished 4th, while missed the top four for the second time this season  an almost unheard-of event.

It wasn’t that long ago that the same four or five teams were making the semis every time in the World Series. This year, ten different teams have made the semis, with only South Africa getting there in all seven tournaments. The USA (in Las Vegas) is one of those ten.

The Eagles passed Argentina for 6th in the World Series, easily their high-water mark in the World Series. Their chances of getting higher are slim to none, as the 5th-placed team, Australia, is ahead of the USA by 20 points. But they can consolidate 6th place with strong performances in Glasgow and London. It helps that they are in a favorable pool in Scotland, with Canada, Japan, and Argentina in Pool D. Stay ahead of Argentina, and keep pace with Scotland (now 7th, a point ahead of Argentina) and the USA can secure 6th.

Carlin Isles passed 50 tries for his World Series career in Hong Kong, becoming the fourth USA player to make the half-century. He has done it in fewer tournaments than anyone else, and in fact far, far fewer minutes, since Isles has rarely played a full game and often played just a few minutes in a game. Isles then went on to lead the Tokyo 7s with seven tries, bypassing Nic Edwards and Matt Hawkins to 2nd all-time.

Now, his strike rate is even more impressive than that. Edwards and Hawkins scored 53 and 56 tries in about 2,000 minutes each (very roughly estimated), so about 1 try every 36 minutes. Test leads all USA players with 119 in (very roughly) 3,500 minutes, which is about 1 try every 29 minutes. Isles scores about once every 14 to 15 minutes he’s on the field. 

Test, by the way, hardly played on the second day in Tokyo. And if you want to look for an issue in his game, see the final moments of regulation in the Bowl Final, when he had Perry Baker open and opted to run into three defenders instead. Test doesn’t pass a lot, and while the results have, usually, been very good, you’ve got to wonder if his sitting on the bench on Sunday was a message of some sort. Message received - Test sent the pass to win the Bowl Final in overtime, to Baker.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Garrett Bender has become a pretty darned good 7s player? With his emergence, and with Martin Iosefo likely available, and with Tai Leuta looking very nice in his debut, and Ahmad Haraijly, Will Holder, and Patrick Blair still in the mix, you’ve got a lot of competition for places among the forwards. 

A look at the standings. Among the interesting things to note: no non-core team has finished higher than last in any tournament. New Zealand, in this all-important Olympic qualification year has put themselves in a tough spot as they are 3rd (you need to be in the top 4 to get automatic qualification to the 2016 Games). Still, they have a huge cushion over England, and it's England in peril of begin taken over, by Australia. The English got a massive boost from winning in Tokyo while Australia lost the Bowl final. 

If the standings hold for the rest of the season, here's what you get for Olympic Qualification:

Automatic: South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, Great Britain, Brazil

South America likely qualifier: Argentina

North America likely qualifier: USA or Canada

Oceania likely qualifier: Australia

Asia likely qualifier: Japan

Europe likely qualifier: France or Russia

Africa likely qualifier: Kenya

Repechage contested by: Samoa, France or Russia, USA or Canada, Portugal, Hong Kong, Uruguay.