A USA Legend Does Not Make the Squad

10.27.2022

As outlined in the recent squad announcement, the USA men’s 7s team will enter the Hong Kong 7s without almost all of their experienced players.

Several of the players are injured, or coming off injuries and need an extra week or two to get fit.

But that’s not all of it. There are some other stories in there, too, with the headliner being the end of an international career for a legend.

But First ...

Lucas Lacamp is entering into the middle of exams at UCLA. The decision, which is completely the right one, made was that he nail down his academics now, and then rejoin the team for later in the season. You might remember that Madison Hughes made the same decision several years ago.

Jake Lachina is in the US Army, and, fun fact, they don’t always get to travel when and where they want.

Stephen Tomasin just needs some time off. A little banged up after the LA 7s and the Rugby World Cup 7s, Tomasin is also the type of guy who would want to put a team on his shoulders. That’s exactly what Mike Friday probably does NOT want him to do. He is being stood down in part because the team going to Hong Kong is so inexperienced. They need to sink or swim as a group.

In Praise of Folau Niua

And finally, Folau Niua. One of the greatest ever USA 7s players, Niua, who got his start with the East Palo Alto U19 team and later played with EPA men and then SFGG and the Pacific Coast Grizzlies, is an intriguing and sobering case.

At 37 (he turned 38 in January), Niua is not a young player. He has been part of the USA setup for 11 years, playing both 7s and 15s, but really exclusively 7s after the close of the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He sustained a horrific leg injury in 2019 that almost cost him that limb—it was that serious. But he battled back to be fit for the RWC 7s this year.

But now it is time for younger players to get their shot. USA Head Coach Mike Friday sat down with Niua and essentially informed the longtime star that he won’t be in the 7s program anymore.

That conversation, Friday told GRR, was “brutal.”

Niua, he said “has given everything to this team and to his country. He almost lost his leg, and it feels like we’re taking off a right arm. But we have to do it. The younger guys need the opportunity to shine and be in the sunlight and not in his shadow. Can ‘Lau play? Yes, of course he can. But we need to plan for the future, and we can’t be thinking one more year, one more year.”

It’s a sad fact of sports that athletes rarely get to make the decision as to when they are done. Niua probably still has more to give domestically or with a touring side, but his time as an Eagle is over, and maybe not when he wanted. But Friday has to get minutes for his developing flyhalves. specifically Naima Fuala’au, Faitala Talapusi, and Sam Walsh. Something had to give.

Going forward, Friday said he would like to see Niua coach.

“He’s brilliant at Xs and Os,” said the coach. “And he’s one of the players I hope to see coaching more.”

That may be scant consolation for the supremely competitive Folau Niua.