USA Men's 7s Head Coach Mike Friday has chosen his team to play in this weekend's LA Sevens.
Captain and leading try-scorer Kevon Williams is not in the squad as he picked up an injury during the team's camp and was only just recently ruled out. Stephen Tomasin will instead captain the side. Veterans Joe Schroeder, Folau Niua, Maceo Brown, and two-time World 7s Player of the Year Perry Baker are also in the side, but no Carlin Isles.
There's a return engagement for Maka Unufe, who has been in the USA 7s program off and on since 2011, when he was still a teenager. His last time with the USA team was in LA and Vancouver in 20202. Cody Melphy, who has captained the USA at times and is a steadying presence in the middle of the backline, also returns.
The USA team hosted Korea, Japan, France, Uruguay, and Argentina in Chula Vista in two different scrimmage series, giving those teams that weren't in the Commonwealth Games some live game time. It was, said Tomasin, hugely valuable.
The USA will arrive in Los Angeles with Series leaders South Africa awaiting them for match one of tournament play. The USA have matched up well against the Blitzboks this year, walking away with a nail-biting 12-7 victory over them in Singapore when these two teams last met. This opening fixture will be an opportunity for the USA to set pace and engage the home crowd advantage from the get-go. Next up will be New Zealand who arrive in LA with intermittent competition, having missed the first half of this year’s series and filling the summer break with a bronze medal finish at the Commonwealth Games. The Eagles and All Blacks Sevens have only faced off once this year, in another close affair that fell the New Zealand way. Pool play will then close with a North American border-battle as Canada take on the USA. Though another tough pool that the USA have frequently drawn this year, Los Angeles comes after a constructive training period, and as ever, the tenacity and passion of playing on home soil. Dignity Health Sports Park is primed for an electric finish to the Eagle’s season and precursor to the Rugby World Cup Sevens.
“We have been working extremely hard following the last leg in London, primarily on our physical preparation and robustness to go for 14 minutes or more, as this is an area we need to continue to mature in," said Friday. "As an evolving group, we have continued to work on the foundations of the game so that we can be more consistent in those fundamental moments which we are currently not winning, more due to our actions rather than the opposition. These last four weeks we have had a number of visiting teams and competitive matches hosting Argentina, France, Uruguay, Korea and Japan throughout the month, which hopefully will stand us in good stead this coming weekend."
