The USA Women's 7s team is targeting a Gold Medal at the Pan-Am Games, and the next step in that journey will be in Fiji.
With the Pan-Am Games in Santiago coming in late October, the Eagles need some game time to build to that. (This is in contrast to the men's team, whose World Series season went a little longer and was followed by the Olympic qualifier tournament that the women didn't need to play in. So the men need time off.)
So the FRU Women's Mini Sevens is the venue for a key warmup event for the Eagle women, with Fiji, France, and New Zealand. These teams already faced off in the first leg of the Mini 7s. The USA will only join in the second leg.
“For us, this tournament is really well-timed. We are in our seventh week of preseason now, and we’ve had some things we wanted to work on and develop off the back of last season," said Head Coach Emilie Bydwell. "We’ve been working hard at home, but unless we get the opportunity to play and compete, we’re not able to gauge what that progress looks like. To be able to have the quality of competition in New Zealand, Australia, France, and Fiji, will help us be able to assess ourselves. It’s meaningful to us because we have another big block leading into PanAmerican Games and Dubai, so we’ll have a more informed plan about how we approach those tournaments.”
