The USA Men's 7s team has a ton of work to do to climb out of 11th on the SVNS World Series and get into the Top eight.
Head Coach Simon Amor must have seen something he liked as he has made just one change from the team that played in Perth—Pita Vi replaces David Still III.
The team came close to beating South Africa and Australia, and did beat Argentina, but that's part of the issue—they are very close, put everything into these games, and in the end don't get enough results to garner points. Amor told GRR that the young players he named as captains last time, Will Chevalier and Jack Wendling, did very well and they return to the side, albeit with now Stephen Tomasin and Lucas Lacamp as captains.
"Our Co-captains in Perth, Will Chevalier and Jack Wendling were outstanding in both attack and defense," said Amor. "These two young players have been in the program for a few years and have shown great growth despite limited game time."
The change in captaincy isn't a reprimand as Amor has changed captains every tournament assembly. That is clearly a design by him to get more leadership buy-in. Right now it does seem like the USA is on the cusp of winning some games. The issue is, they need to win them at the right times, too.
"The team had been focused on learning how to be consistently in the fight, and now we are working on how to consistently win those fights," Amor told GRR. "We are working on improving our decision-making, especially under pressure or when fatigued. There wasn't one common theme in the critical moments of those close games in Perth; we just made some poor decisions in the moment. Developing a better understanding of the game and more consistent, clear thinking will make a big difference for us going forward."
But he is still working on fitness and acknowledges that sometimes it's the decision-making, not the physical stuff, that suffers.
"We still need to work on both our physical and mental fitness to ensure that more players are 40-minute players and can handle consecutive, demanding matches, which is something we struggled with in Perth, particularly in that heat. With Vancouver being a three day competition, that mindset will be important."
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