Wow. Eagle Women Make Cape Town Final
Wow. Eagle Women Make Cape Town Final
The USA Women's 7s team's young players made big strides in Cape Town, beating Fiji, Great Britain, and, most notably, Australia to make the final.
USA 31
Tries: Toliver 2, Thomas, Porter 2
Convs: Canett 3
Fiji 0
USA 31
Tries: Toliver, Ramsey, Thomas, Levy
Convs: Canett, Ibarra 2
Great Britain 14
Tries: Boatman 2
Convs: Brown, Hayward
USA 24
Tries: Ramsey, Toliver 2, Porter
Convs: Canett 2
Australia 19
Tries: Hinds, Nathan, M. Levi
Convs: Kinds, T. Levi
USA 12
Tries: Toliver, Porter
Convs: Canett
New Zealand 26
Tries: Miller, Felix-Notham, Tenti, Faleafaga
Convs: Pouri-Lane 3
This is a very talented team with a good combination of speed and power, and they also fixed some of their defensive positioning issues from Dubai.
Against Australia, they fell behind 19-7, but there were flashes throughout the first 10 minutes that showed that the USA might make something happen.
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That's when Nia Toliver took over. She scored a try reminiscent of Spiff Sedrick's fend and run against Australia in the Olympics—it wasn't as long a run but it was similar. Toliver has very good acceleration and loves to break tackles, but she also has excellent balance which means when she's hit, she doesn't automatically go down.
Kaylen Thomas also has emerged as more than just a runner. She can make tackles and makes good decisions around the breakdown. The one thing she might learn is on Faith Nathan's long run for a try for Australia, Thomas chased her down—Nathan scored anyway but Thomas's desire and effort to chase her was impressive. It was also a little unnecessary—she has to pick her moments to do things like that.
Regardless, we saw improvements in decision-making from Rachel Strasdas and Alyssa Porter.
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So with a 5th place in Dubai and a 2nd place in Cape Town, the USA has shown they can reload fairly quickly. There is more to do, but consider also that they led New Zealand 12-0 before the Kiwis came back. With a 12-0 lead and maybe a bit more experience, they could hold onto that lead.
"I am so proud of the team and how they not only have attacked the last two weeks, but how they’ve attacked the last two months that we have been together," said Head Coach Emilie Bydwell. "Early in preseason we talked about how this year was about forming a team, and building a foundation for our LA 2028 campaign. Our players immediately bought into the process, and into the culture of our team that has been established while also taking the steps to make that culture their own. While it is fantastic to have made a final, what’s more inspiring is how the players continued to stay focused on our process throughout the pressure of competition, working together to reflect and improve over the nine games that we had the opportunity to play. On the field, they not only consistently delivered work ethic, but they showed they have the courage to express their strengths, and while also doing things that are uncomfortable. We will take the holiday period to reload, and everyone is looking forward to get back into camp and building on this foundation together."
With the second-place finish, the USA moves up to 4th in the SVNS World Series standings.
The top four are:
New Zealand (38 Pts)
Australia (34)
France (32)
USA (30)
After that top four there is a significant gap:
Grate Britain (22)
Japan (18)
Canada (18)
Ireland (16)
