The USA Falcons playing in Fiji have had a rough-and-tumble lesson in elite-level 7s this week.
The Coral Coast Sevens features teams from all over Fiji. And while Fiji is a country of under a million people, just imagine if you entered a Fijian basketball team into a 3-on-3 tournament in Columbus, Ohio (pop. 900,000) or Fort Worth, Teas (op. 960,000). In Fiji every village has a 7s team and every village 7s team has the very best of their national sport playing.
So these are unified, athletic, and highly skilled opposition. Still the Falcons have competed.
On Day One the Falcons were upended by Fire 22-5 in their opening game. Adam Channel scored the lone Falcons try. The next game, against the Ba Originals, Will Chevalier and Darell Williams scored for the Falcons; the Originals matched them with two tries and converted both to win 14-10. The third pool game was also competitive. Channel and Peter Sio scored tries but Dominion Brothers scored four to win 26-12.
So, 0-3 in pool play, but some good lessons and they've been getting some support.
