The USA 7s team will kick off their 2014-15 IRB Sevens World Series season this coming weekend at the Gold Coast 7s, starting with Canada and following up with England and Argentina in a hugely challenging Pool D.

Those games will occur Saturday in Australia, and Friday night in the US, and either way will be a big day as the new coaching staff, some new players, and a new captain take the field.

The new captain is Dartmouth College senior Madison Hughes, who has all of four IRB tournaments under his belt. The England-trained rugby player qualifies for the USA thanks to his American mother, but he spent the key years of his rugby development in the UK, including at the highly-regarded Wellington College high school. There Hughes earned the notice of the High School All American team, and then the USA U20s, helping lead them to a Junior World Rugby Trophy win in 2012.

The rise has continued, with Hughes being named MVP of the CRC 7s invitational in 2012, becoming an All American each of the last three years, and being named captain of Dartmouth.

Last spring he shared time between Dartmouth and the USA team, scoring 98 points in those four tournaments, showing that his trademark sidestep, acceleration, and kicking ability international caliber.

Is his leadership? New Coach Mike Friday thinks so, saying Hughes was the player others gravitated to, and listened to.

“I am not the most vocal guy in the world,” added Hughes. “But you have to be at times, especially as a sweeper. We have a lot of great leaders on this team, so I concentrate on being a good example, and working really hard.”

Communication, said Hughes, is a key part of development for any team sport, and so is thinking of the game and the team as a community outside yourself. As recounted on the RuggaMatrix America podcast, on the day he was named USA captain, Hughes showed up to watch Dartmouth play Harvard. Even though he didn’t play, and didn’t contribute to the trash on the sidelines, he spent the post-match picking up garbage and making sure his team’ sideline was clean.

Many noticed that and saw it for what it was, the actions of a leader.

Told the story, Hughes shrugged - “there are stereotypes of how rugby players behave, so it’s up to us to change those perceptions. If we’re leaving a mess on the sidelines, people notice.”

The USA team has to clean up some things on the field, too. Hughes said the entire team is looking to take a step forward from last year, and talk about finishing near the top rather than avoiding relegation.

“We’re ready to make a dent,” said Hughes. “It’s all to play for in the first tournament and you just have to go out there and perform as well as you can. Last year we played really well at times, but we’d have a let-down. We’d have a bad half, or a bad few minutes, and those mistakes would really hurt us. For me, and for the team, I think we have to concentrate not only on playing as well as we can, but doing it consisatently.”

Universal Sports is streaming the first day of competition. If we have more information on how to see the Gold Coast 7s, we will post it on Goff Rugby Report.

USA 7s Team for Gold Coast:
1. Garrett Bender
2. Andrew Durutalo
3. Zack Test
4. Nic Edwards
5. Pat Blair
6. Madison Hughes (C)
7. Folau Niua
8. Peter Tiberio
9. Danny Barrett
10. Maka Unufe
11. Carlin Isles
12. Perry Baker