International Rugby News
The HSBC Sevens World Series has started in a slightly different form, and a new-look USA men's team is looking fairly good.
With various countries able or not able to travel due to COVID fears, the tournament this weekend in Vancouver has 12 men's teams, including Great Britain (usually represented by three separate national teams) Germany, Chile, Hong Kong, Jamaica, and Mexico.
Top U23 players have been spending some weeks in a USA Academy residency camp in Glendale, Colo. as part of USA Rugby's partnership with the city that gives USA Rugby consistent access to the Infinity Park facilities.
The improvement of the USA Men's 15s team from one week to the next was actually not that much of a surprise.
The USA started with the clear intention of attacking wide, with both wings, Christian Dyer and Ryan Matyas getting the ball early. They used prop Joe Taufete’e to crash up the middle, too, and eventually forced Canada to infringe, giving captain AJ MacGinty an easy penalty attempt, which he converted.
This week I asked USA Head Coach Gary Gold about managing the emotion surrounding playing on September 11, and what he said was, for me, a good reminder.
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