The USA Men’s 7s team is 3-0 after Day One at the Canada 7s at BC Place in Vancouver.

Unlike in recent tournaments, when the Eagles would put in ten minutes of strong rugby, and the occasional four minutes of trouble, the USA team was fairly consistent on the turf at BC Place, hammering Japan, defeating their bete noir, France, and then dominating Australia to close out the day.

USA action from Day One at the 2017 Canada 7s Photos David Barpal. Left Patrick Blair. Right Perry Baker.

Perry Baker and Danny Barrett were the stars in many ways on the day, making big plays and scoring tries, but every player contributed, often crucially, and the second half against Australia belonged to Maka Unufe.

The open game against Japan was one-way traffic. Barrett got his 50th World Series try. Baker scored three, and Ben Pinkelman and Stephen Tomasin, two hard-working players who don’t always see much in the way of glory, scored twice. 

USA action from Day One at the 2017 Canada 7s Photos David Barpal. Left Stephen Tomasin, right Fulau Niua.

In the second game of the day, the Eagles had their most difficult encounter. As usually, France got a bit under the USA players’ skins, and were tough to shake. Key, though, was at a moment when in the past France has been able to turn the momentum, it was the USA team that did the turning.

Stuck in their own 22 the Eagles got out of it with a break from Barrett, and pop pass to Madison Hughes, who went another 75 meters to score. After that, it was hands out to Martin Iosefo, who saw that Baker was heavily marked and so cut back and ran it in himself.

USA action from Day One at the 2017 Canada 7s Photos David Barpal. Left Baker in for a try against Japan, right , Baker in for a try against France.

Up 12-0 the Eagles then gifted France a try when they were trying to get out of their own in-goal. Folau Niua passed to Hughes, who wasn’t expecting it, the ball bounced off his shoulder, and Alexandre Largarde nabbed the ball out of the air and touched it down, simple as that.

But instead of imploding, the Eagles got the ball on the restart and Iosefo burned the French for his second try.

Thierry Bouhraoua closed the gap in the second half, but then Baker torched his opposite down the sideline, and then some nifty passing put Andrew Durutalo away to make it 31-12. France scored once more but the game was in hand by then.

USA action from Day One at the 2017 Canada 7s Photos David Barpal. Left Iosefo up for the kick, right Barrett works his magic.

So on to the third game, where the Eagles put Baker away from long range, then again when Hughes popped a kick ahead that sat up perfectly for the Floridian. Barrett showed a nice turn of pace on the springy Vancouver turf, and it was 17-0 at halftime.

The second half started with Unufe catching the restart at 10.1 meters, and running in untouched. Unufe then used Baker as a decoy to score another. That made it 29-0. Australia scored (despite Pinkelman’s best efforts) at the end of the game, but that was it.

Every player had his moments, and, surprisingly, Hughes looked pretty spry despite his leg issues a week ago. Iosefo and Unufe combined brilliantly at 2nd receiver, and the forwards all rotated with effectiveness.  

At 3-0, and a comfortable 3-0, the USA looks confident, and will likely play Wales in the Cup Quarterfinals on Sunday. That’s most certainly a winnable game, and sets the USA up for a second-straight podium finish.