The USA Men's 7s team has been named to play in the Dubai 7s.

Head coach Mike Friday has named two debutants, former Notre Dame College All American Marcus Tupuola and former Grand Canyon University standout Maceo Brown, to join a relatively season squad.

"Both Marcus and Maceo have done remarkably well and worked very hard all summer to get this opportunity," said Friday. "Firstly this is a testament to JD Stephenson's talent identification work which put both in the Collegiate All-American pathway and in front of us at RugbyTown Sevens these last two years."Olympic Qualification is on the line this season, with the top four teams in the World Series getting an automatic place in Tokyo 2020.

Nominated for his second-consecutive World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year honors, USA fans will be thrilled to see Perry Baker back in the mix for Dubai and joined by fellow speedster Carlin Isles. Combined, Isles and Baker scored 86 tries for the United States last season, accounting to 41% of the team's tries.

If named to the final 12, sevens fans' favorite playmaker, Folau Niua, will make his 60th World Rugby Sevens Series appearance.

The Eagles are set to face Spain, Wales, and World Champions New Zealand in pool play in Dubai.

"New season new challenge," said Friday. "It has been an interesting preseason for us given the changes to preparation and personnel that we have implemented to help us continuously evolve. We have also experienced a few unnecessary distractions which as a group we have had to contend with. Olympic qualification is the target for us in what will be an even more competitive season and I have no doubt the standard will improve once again. To try and continue to move forward we need to strive to achieve a consistency to our game in all matches and seek to eradicate any drops in performance during the same tournaments that hurt us last season. We are confident that if we can remain healthy and resilient to the challenge, we have what it takes to compete for every cup."

 

Men's Eagles Sevens Extended Roster

All players are part of the Men's Sevens residency program.

 

Perry Baker

Danny Barrett

Maceo Brown*

Madison Hughes (Captain)

Martin Iosefo

Carlin Isles

Matai Leuta

Cody Melphy

Folau Niua

Ben Pinkelman

Brett Thompson

Steve Tomasin

Marcus Tupuola*

Kevon Williams

*Could make their first HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series appearance.

 

Men's Eagles Sevens Staff

Head Coach | Mike Friday

Assistant Coach | Anthony "Rocky" Roques

Strength & Conditioning Coach | Matt Long

Athletic Trainer | Brian Green

Team Manager | Scott Novack

Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens Schedule

Pool C | Broadcast LIVE on ESPN Networks (exact network TBD)

 

vs Spain | Fri, Nov. 30 - 12 AM ET

vs Wales | Fri, Nov. 30 - 3 AM ET

vs New Zealand | Fri, Nov. 30 - 9:22 AM ET