Falcons Women Raised the Bar, Says Test
Falcons Women Raised the Bar, Says Test
One of the slightly weird things about the USA Falcons playing in the EAAST 7s in France this month was that the coach of the women's team, Zack Test, is the guy who will take over the senior men's 7s team.
What that ultimately meant was that Test was doing double duty, coaching the women and executing the plan set forth by Women's 7s Head Coach Emilie Bydwell, and then running out to observe and track the Men's team. But job #1 was to ensure the women got a taste of international 7s.
"The trip to France was was great; it was really, really great," Test told GRR. "The EAAST tournament was well run. The director of it was a former All Black Sevens player, Teddy Stanaway, and he and I had a prior relationship to, we played against each other. It was good knowing someone there that you played against and had conversations with, and he really helped out with a lot of the logistic stuff that we had to figure out."
And he had logistics to figure out. And it was a little emotional. Test has been the assistant coach for the women's team and so this was his last action with the women.
"It was kind of a a nice little send-off of a lot of the younger girls that I kind of mentored," Test said. "It was just kind of 'how can I help you and get that next domino to fall in your development?'"
Overall the team had a theme, which was "raise the bar."
"Every time we're together, anything we're doing, we're raising the bar each day, each moment. And they did that, and I think all of them stuck their hand up and said that you know I'm becoming a better person and a better rugby player, and all of them contributed. What we did was pretty special. Outside the two losses to New Zealand. In the final. We played really, really well."
Yes they did lose to the New Zealand Cavaliers, which was essentially New Zealand's 2nd team, but they improved. Their first meeting was a 51-0 loss to the Cavaliers. The final in that tournament was 28-7, so a marked improvement. In the second EAAST 7s, New Zealand beat the Falcons 31-12 and, in the final, 22-5. So each game was a little bit closer than the last."I'm really proud of their efforts and how they're continuing to grow as individuals in a group," said Test. "And they really they they showed up to the test like we wanted."
