It’s business as usual for a very effective USA women’s 7s team as the Eagles finished Pool Play at the Cape Town 7s 2-1.

Only a somewhat unlucky end to the game against Australia—one missed tackle and one dropped ball—prevented a clean sweep.

The Eagles dominated Ireland on Friday in the first pool game. Alev Kelter torched Ireland early for two, and some smart teamwork and ball movement saw Eti Haungatau, Lauren Doyle, Naya Tapper, and Abbie Gustaitis make it a rout. Tappers length-of-the-field run was almsot amusing in how taxing it was on the exhausted players.

On Saturday the USA took care of England. The English decided to come up right in the USA’s face, and it worked fairly well. It took a while for the Eagles to get some go-forward, and there were a lot of rucks in this game.

But they persevered and were patient, and Chris Brown put on a power-heavy team that could handle the contact. Kelter once again punished weak tackling, as did Kristi Kirshe, and the game was in hand midway through the second half.

So on to Australia. Both teams were 2-0, and the Eagles hardly saw the halfway line in the first half. They did start with possession, and when Tapper’s boot barely grazed the touchline, Australia took the lineout quickly and, after a little work, Ellia Green went right up the middle, with two Americans unable to catch her.

Poor support as the Americans tried to run out of their 22 led to a penalty and a quick tap and try for Australia, and that made it 14-0. Kirshe and Kelter combined nicely for a try at the end of the first half, and then some really good work from Doyle, Ilona Maher and Cheta Emba allowed Doyle to score on a quick tap. 

That tied it up, and the Eagles had plenty of time to take the lead, but passed up space out wide to go up the middle, and lost the ball to a penalty. Emma Tonegato then went the length of the field for Australia to make it 19-14. 

Just enough time for one more play. The Eagles attacked superbly and had numbers to go over, but Australia knocked the ball forward intentionally—penalty and a yellow card. One more shot for the USA. It was right there, but Emba was a bit overeager on the final pass and dropped the ball with the tryline begging.

This means little in that both teams made the quarterfinals and a tie would still have mean Australia would win the pool.

The USA plays Canada on Sunday in the Quarterfinals while Australia takes on Fiji. Russia will face France and New Zealand plays England as it seems it’s historical rivalry day in Cape Town.

The USA team has been playing well. They have a nice mix of power and pace, and really it’s just up to coach Chris Brown to find the right combination. Overall their tackling has been good, but one or two key misses hurt them.