The USA Women’s 7s team is scrimmaging Canada and Brazil at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. this week.

It’s an excellent chance for the three programs to test some players and get some live action. USA and Canada have two squads in action and Brazil one as the teams play games through Tuesday and Wednesday at TESC’s extensive fields in the middle of campus.

The Evergreen State College is familiar with rugby as many local youth and adult games and tournaments have been played on those fields. there’s room for four full rugby fields on campus, and the players and coaches were appreciative of the space the venue afforded them.

Jordyn Maultsby photo.

“The facility’s nice. It suits us to get out of our normal day-to-day environment. And the trees are nice. its just a beautiful area and you can’t beat trees and nature. We’ll be looking at this as our last scrimmage to select our squad for Rio. There are a lot of players I am looking at to put their hand up.”

Walker split his squad basically into a 1st and 2nd team, although there was a little bit of mixing. The first team showed a little more cohesion and aggression, and were better in the air simply because they had Carmen Farmer and Jill Potter going up for the high balls. The 2nd team were burned a couple of times against Brazil, but were tenacious.

“We wanted to make sure we got players enough minutes, and that’s been something we’ve been working on,” said Walker. 

His team in Atlanta won five out of six, but was changed significantly for the tournament following in British Columbia. He did the same in Europe, sending a Falcons team to the London 7s Invitational, where they beat Japan, Brazil, Great Britain, Spain, France, and the Maple Leafs to win the tournament. Then Walker switched up some of the players for the World Series tournament in France,  where they lost to the hosts in the Plate Final.

Jordyn Maultsby photo.

“I just wanted to make sure that I saw everyone and that everyone had enough time,” said Walker. “It would have been nice to win the [France] tournament, but it wasn’t about that. It was about it was making sure I get to see all the players with the exact same amount of time so it’s all fare, and I get the opportunity to make my decision.”

Captain Kelly Griffin said the reality of the Olympics is sinking in.

“Everything we do is towards the Olympics,” said told Goff Rugby Report. “Especially now the World Series is over. Now the next thing … is the Olympics! Now we’re making sure we do everything we can to be ready to compete. And playing here is good for us - it’s a good no-stakes environment to test where we are.”