The USA 7s Men's World Series tournament started off very nicely for the Eagles, with two victories against relatively low-level opponents.

Samoa is struggling to find their rugby voice, and Chile is the 16th team for the event (the only team at the tournament that doesn't appear in every event), and rightfully so the Eagles powered past both.

Danny Barrett rumbled, stumbled, and powered to three tries against Samoa, much to the delight of the crowd. He scored on a quick tap. He capped off a nice movement on the wing, lowering the shoulder on his tackler. And then he scored after a period of team play and burst through three attempted tackles in the space of five meters. That last try was made possible by some lovely sidestepping from Folau Niua and an over-the-shoulder pass from Stephen Tomasin. The former Cal All American led the USA to a 26-5 victory.

Next up was Chile, and the Eagles had little trouble with the Condors. Martin Iosefo scored two, Barrett got another, and Tomasin and Pat Blair also touched down in a 31-0 shutout.

USA Head Coach Mike Friday had named a slightly changed squad for Vegas. With Carlin Isles out injured he had to be happy that Perry Baker was back in the lineup. He also has been testing some young players and Walt Elder was one of those, Blair has been out of the lineup for a while, but the former Central Washington All American is back and got a nice try at the end of the Chile game.

State breakdowns of the games are available here:

USA v Samoa

USA v Chile

But to summarize, against Samoa the Eagles and Samoa were relatively even in most stats, but the USA did better at the rucks and made fewer pass/catch errors, and because of that just put Samoa under constant pressure. Against Chile they were better at the point of contact, and much better at retaining restarts and keeping possession. 

We've got some photos from the Samoa game thanks to David Barpal, including Folau Niua's try, and Barrett's three.

Also 2-0 on Friday were South Africa, England, New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia. The Eagles will face England to see who wins Pool B, but both ar through to the quarters regardless.