Good Showing by USA Falcons Teams in France
Good Showing by USA Falcons Teams in France
The USA Falcons men and women can take some positives from the first tournament of the EAAST 7s in France this weekend.
Falcons Women Chase Kiwis
The USA women started strong with a 43-0 shutout of Charente. and rode that confidence-builder into a 24-5 win over a tough Tropics side.
That set up the final match of the day against unbeaten New Zealand, which the Kiwis won convincingly 51-0.
However, Saturday was another day and the USA women met Tropics in the semifinal, taking that game in a shutout 17-0.
New Zealand won big over Charente and so they would meet the USA in the final. The championship match was much closer for the Falcons. New Zealand won, but at 28-7 the winning margin was less than half of what it was on Friday.
Falcons Men Take Steps
The USA men had some lessons to learn and while they opened Day One with a 19-10 win over China, it got tougher from there. UBB won the next pool game 26-7, and the final game of the day saw New Zealand win 41-7.
That put the USA in the bottom half of the break, but they channeled some of the lessons from Day One for the second day. In the 5th-place semifinal they beat Cook Islands in impressive fashion 53-0. That set up the 5th-place final in a rematch against China. Paced by some impressive sidestepping from Peter Sio Jr., the USA won 26-24 to take 5th.
With this EAAST 7s having another tournament next weekend, the USA teams will be able to target improvement. But already they showed steps forward over the two days.
