Some Things to Address for PE 7s
Some Things to Address for PE 7s
The USA Men’s 7s team gets to rebound from a frustrating Dubai 7s in South Africa and should have some of their banged up players back available to play.
Zach Test was held out of the Day Two games in Dubai thanks to an ankle injury. Perry Baker saw little time on Day Two after a shoulder stinger. At the same time, Mike Friday seems to have used Day Two in Dubai to see what some other players have to offer. The coach confessed some frustration with Test, who needs to use his support more - pointing out to Goff Rugby Report that Test likely would not have been injured had he passed to Danny Barrett or Perry Baker outside him.
Meanwhile Baker, said Friday, is starting to get frustrated as teams key on him more. He doesn’t get the space he did in Gold Coast.
“He will learn from this frustration, and I am sure he will come back better,” …said Friday. “It’s only his second tournament.”
On Day Two perhaps the most interesting personnel move from Friday was to put Patrick Blair in at scrumhalf. The bulky 7s forward passes quite nicely and has a good work rate, and he didn’t do badly at all. It was telling that against France Barrett had more clear runs in space than Carlin Isles - Barrett was on the end of well-timed, leading passes from Blair, while Isles was run out of space by his teammates.
Martin Iosefo has impressed and should continue to develop into a useful player. He is powerful and has some moves. Aladdin Schirmer didn’t get as much time, but every player has his development timetable.
“Aladdin and Martin added for mixture of reasons to give them experience and exposure to the circuit so they understand what is needed and they can gauge where they are and what they need to work on,” said Friday. “Both add physicality. Aladdin gives us another confrontational forward who can carry for us and Martin brings versatility as he is able to play in the forwards or backs and has good pace. It’s been a steep learning curve for them both.”
Friday said the Eagles have shown they can control the tempo of a game, but then make boneheaded mistakes that hurt them. Too often a player has a tackle all set up, and a teammate comes in to complete it, thus leaving a hole open for opposing support runners. Against France, Blair was heard, with bleepable language, urging players to send the ball wide quickly when it’s called for. Simple advice, but good advice. The USA continues to be a team that is too slow to exploit an overload on the there side of the field.
The USA has an excellent opportunity to make amends this weekend. They face South Africa, Kenya, and Wales in Pool A. At present, South Africa is too good to be beaten by an error-strewn USA team. But a slightly more accurate Eagles 7s squad can take care of Wales and Kenya, and earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
To do that they need Test back and healthy; they need to heed Blair’s urging to get it through the hands quickly when called for; they need to make and expect to make one-on-one tackles.
And they need the good Danny Barrett on the field. The good Danny Barrett is the guy who catches kickoffs and doesn’t care about getting thumped in mid-air. The good Danny Barrett battles in the rucks and makes holes for others in his running. The bad Danny Barrett makes lots of penalties, especially holding-on penalties, and camps out on the wing to the exclusion of all else.
More grit and fewer penalties is probably what Mike Friday wants from everyone.
Some shots from the Dubai tournament by Ian Muir exlcusively for Goff Rugby Report (click on image to enlarge).
Some shots from the Dubai tournament by Ian Muir exlcusively for Goff Rugby Report (click on image to enlarge).
