The USA U18 Boys finished 6th at the Global Youth 7s in Auckland, New Zealand, dropping two games on the final day of competition.

Pool play started poorly as the team seemed a bit disjointed and committed some silly penalties in a 38-19 loss to Asian Dragons. But that was a bit of the wakeup call for the Americans. They turned around the pretty much dominate Iron Armour Academy and Pakuranga. Leading the way were James Rose (Green Bay Rugby), who showed a nice combination of power and rugby IQ, and San Diego Mustang Spencer Huntley, who worked very hard on defense and as a result found himself with scoring chances.

Monarch Rugby’s Marco Lapierre showed a nice turn of pace and a sidestep to add to the USA arsenal.

So at 2-1 they were comfortably into the knockout rounds. In the Round of 16 the Americans were impressive in putting aside the Auckland Bucks and that set up a quarterfinal meeting with the New Zealand Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers and USA traded tries early on and it seemed like that would be the tale of the game. But the USA committed key penalties at unfortunate times and each time the Cavaliers burned them. Impatience crept in for the USA and they were quickly out of the game. Stanley Solomon was very quick for the Cavaliers and accelerated through for multiple tries. He ended up being the tournament MVP.

But they had done enough to make the 5th-6th game. In this tournament losing teams in the Cup Quarterfinals are ranked by points difference with the top two playing for 5th, while the other two teams played off for 7th. 

A Chance for 5th

In the 5th-6th game the New Zealand Barbarians were very quick with the offloads, which forced the USA to work enormously hard on defense. Early-on they did just that, getting a turnover as one offload was nabbed by Matt Cleland and the ball was eventually shipped to Lapierre who took off the score from 60 meters out. But after that the USA once again ran into composure mistakes. Penalties led to an equalizing try. Being a bit slow to look for the quick lineout meant the USA were caught unawares as the Barbarians cut through for another. And then as the first half ended, a needless high tackle set up a third try for the Barbarians.

In the second half some good defensive cover work by Huntley when the Barbarians kicked led to Rose getting a chance down the sideline. He was just stopped, however. The USA got another shot soon thereafter thanks to a penalty but were held up under the posts. It really looked like the player held up, Ben Saunders (GCU) had got his knee on the ground, but instead it was a scrum for the Barbarians. It might be referee Maggie Cogger-Orr (who’s a high-level ref in New Zealand) decided she’d made the wrong call because right after she called the Barbarians for feeding the scrum (which never happens). Quick tap and out to Saunders and finally a try.

The next several minutes were spent in the NZ Barbarians 22 but the USA team’s teamwork seemed to break down a little bit. They were not working well in support and as a result were unable to score and, eventually, gave up a breakaway try.

And that try sealed it 22-12 (actually we think it was 24-10 but the result is the same). For the USA 6th-place was pretty good considering how many international-level teams were in the competition. Interestingly, the Asian Dragons, which went 3-0 in pool play while beating the USA team, ended up 13th. The New Zealand Cavaliers made the final against the New Zealand U18 team. 

Belmont Shore was competitive in every game they played but ended up 1-4 on the weekend, taking 22nd. The New Zealand U18 team defeated the New Zealand Cavaliers in the final.