USA Men Return to to SVNS Core Status
USA Men Return to to SVNS Core Status
The USA Men's 7s team is back in the SVNS World Series core group after the Eagles beat Samoa Sunday in Madrid.
The format of the qualifier tournament was a little odd—teams played pool play over two days just to seed themselves for a one-off Sunday match. There were four of those one-offs and the winners made the SVNS series. The losers have to try to requalify next year. USA Head Coach Mike Friday made plain his disdain for that format when interviewed on the live broadcast.
"Sadly winning rugby games doesn't matter," Friday said on Saturday. "We've got the roulette game tomorrow. Don't get me started on this format."
Friday said this during the game with Canada, which the Eagles didn't need to win in order to win their pool. He ran out a different lineup for that game and the USA still won, but not especially easily.
What all of that did was rest up the starting seven for Sunday in the hopes that they would take control against Samoa. This they did. Orrin Bizer was immense in this match, making several huge players and scoring two tries. Bizer's work rate added to his powerful presence in contact, and in fact in the final play of the game, a meaningless long-range try by Samoa, it was Bizer who chased Vaa Apelu Maliko all the way back.
Lucas Lacamp sped out of a tackle and was over at two minutes, and while Samoa responded, some quick hands got the ball to Perry Baker for a breakaway try. The Eagles ended the half with a perfect grubber from Naima Fuala'au that Baker chased down and grabbed one-handed to take over.
So it was 26-7 at halftime and the Eagles controlled it from there. Bizer thundered over early in the second half and Lacamp bamboozled the Samoa defense for another.
Ultimately, despite Fridays worries about Samoa's danger, the USA controlled the game from the outset and booked their place back in the SVNS Series. Spain, Kenya, and Uruguay also won their games to be part of the core 12 in 2024-25.
By the way, France won the entire Series with the championship tournament, beating Argentina in the final. Fiji beat New Zealand for 3rd.
As for how this all shook down, Friday has a point. The format for the SVNS Series, including how they funnel quarterfinal losers for the 5th-6th or 7th-8th games, is a little too-cute. For the qualifier tournament, all eight had a shot and it came down to one game that could have been a game that depends on luck, or a bad call, or something. Yes, that's true of Cup Finals, but this format seemed dramatic, but a little strange.
As for qualifying, it's good news, but take a look at this official "yay we've qualified back as a core team!!!" photo. This is not a photo of a team proud of the acheivement. This is a photo of a team that felt they never should have been in this position to start with.
