Coaching the USA Men's 7s: The Zack Test Interview
Coaching the USA Men's 7s: The Zack Test Interview
Zack Test had a unique opportunity to see some of the younger USA 7s players in action before he actually took over the Men's 7s Head Coach job.
Tasked as he was to coach the women's team, Test opted to leave the men's squad alone for the first week. Ben Pinkelman and Colton Cariaga were coaching the team and they knew what players they had.
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The idea was to see how the players and the team responded to the initial game plan.
Taking a Back Seat
"So Week One I kind of left Colton and Pinky alone, because I wanted to really observe how everything was run, how the players recover, how they do their prep before games, how they handle warmups—you know, kind of the whole thing around the tournament," Test explained to GRR. I wanted to see how they did things right, because I don't want to go on there and fix things that don't necessarily need to be fixed or refined. So I left them alone."
With the Men's Falcons and Women's Falcons sharing a tent at the EASST 7s, Test had a chance to observe how the players went about their business, how they spoke to each other, and how they approached being a professional athlete.
"It was really good to get a real live look at the next crop of good American 7s players, and it was really good to see who stepped up the plate in pressure moments; who stepped up against really opposition," Test said. "You know that players raise their hand and you know they deserve to be here, and so it was. With the boys, they grew throughout the two weeks. It was really good to see their growth. And probably the most special thing was is one of my goals going into that tour was was making it one program and not just the men's and women's sevens separate."
As a result they held a joint jersey ceremony. Games Night was a combined game Night for the men and the women.
"We ate dinner together; we kind of did everything together," explained Test. "It's a united house, but united even more."
That was, perhaps, the main change Test pushed for early-on. But then when the second week rolled around, the former USA 7s star had some suggested to put forth.
What that required of him was to coach the women, get them off the field, debrief on the game, and often then sprint to the fields to see the men play.
"The second week is when I sat down with Colton and Pinky and I said, 'OK, here's what needs to be changed here. Here's what needs to be changed here. Here's what needs to be changed here. It wasn't huge things, but it was just little micro refinements here and there of how we can change a process, how we can change a system, how we can do this more effectively. Make it 1%, 2% better. And I think we saw a big jump from their performance from Week One to Week Two, where they were really humming."
"We'd go over their focus points. Are they hitting this? Are they communicating the right way? Are they following the system that I wanted to play? And they did. And I think you continue to see that they got better and better and better, and then that final ... I mean, it was a bounce of the ball kind of in that second half versus New Zealand, and they really pushed that team."
It was 14-12 for the Falcons late in the final against New Zealand in the second week before a few errors crept in to help the Cavaliers to a victory. Those two teams played against each other three times, with New Zealand winning 41-7 on Week One, and on Week Two the scores were 27-19 and 29-14.
"I think the game that really stood out for me against the boys was when they played against Pacific Toa," said Test. "They had been in the final the weekend before, and were a really big physical team and a lot of X factor. And the boys just showed up. in such an incredible defensive effort. This is something that you know I spoke with Pinky and Colton about, which is ... if we can take anything away from this. We know that all those boys can attack, but how well can they defend as a collective? Because that's really where the rubber hits the road. If you've got a collective seven that can kind of bend, don't break, and then be smart with their opportunities at the breakdown and not just go after everything—now you've got front-foot ball."
Looking at film later, Test said he saw good defensive decisions by the team—key being not exerting major pressure when it's too risky, and not always going for the jackle when it's not on.
"We knew with the firepower that they had on attack that they were going to get their opportunities to score," said Test. "So it was abut how well could they defend?"
The Little Things
Now moving on, Test will have a still-young, developing Men's 7s team to coach in a new SVNS format. The USA is in the 2nd tier in the SVNS Circuit, The Eagles will play in three Division 2 tournaments, and if they finish those three tournaments among the top four (out of six), they join the Division 1 teams for a three-tournament series for the World Championship.
This gives Test and his team a chance to work their way into stronger performances. This was a team that, yes, finished low down in the SVNS Standings for 2024-25, but they often pushed very strong teams to close games, only to lose the plot against lesser opponents.
Now, with a sort of easing into the SVNS competition, Test can concentrate on the little things.
"For me, the most important things are those little details, and you might think that for an example, that footwork has nothing to do with your passing ability. Well, for me, footwork has everything to do with your passing ability, because, at first, it's how you can synchronize your upper body and your lower body. How can you also manipulate a defender with just footwork before you catch the ball, and after you release it like, what does that look like? How can you keep your body in control? Those small things I'm huge on."
That skill execution is something Test wants to see in his players all the time.
"One thing I learned as a player, especially when it comes to big moments, is those small details mean everything in those those little moments," Test explained. "I can remember they playing in Hong Kong, and I think it was 2014. I had to throw a long pass out to Andrew Diritalo at the end of the game, and it happened to go behind, and he happened to knock it on. And I went back and reflected, like, you know, why didn't that pass close? OK, well, I wasn't taking my footwork and my body control of my pass, yto the 100%, and that's what I have to do to make sure that that moment never happens again. Learning from my playing experience will help me in my coaching journey."
Mistakes happen, but Test wants these younger players to understand that the key is to figure out why those mistakes happen. He wants the players to get to a point where skills execution is so ingrained that it happens at the most stressful times.
Leveraging His Experience
Test has experience playing on the 7s circuit. And while that's true of other coaches, his experience is fairly recent, and involved playing for the USA, both when they were not good, and when they were very good.
He understands what it's like for his players.
"This place is Groundhog Day," he said, referring to the movie in which Bill Murray's character relives the same day over and over again. "You see the same people day in and day out you're and, in essence, you're doing the same thing day-in and day-out, right? And we're if we're talking about like like I just said with the passing motion, like you're doing that passing motion every day. It's an absolute grind."
Fans see the games and playing in large stadiums, but they don't see the other 300 or so days the players put into it.
"It's really, really tough," said Test. "So what I tell players when they come in is, when you're in, be in, be a 100% in; throw everything out and dive headfirst into the deep end of the pool, and just immerse yourself. Ask questions, and never be satisfied with enough. Push yourself do extras. But then, as soon as you leave this place, leave leave everything at the door. Go home, have a routine that gets your headspace out of rugby. Go to the beach. I play golf and thats what I did as a player. People have their different things, but get something that where you can switch your mind off and you become a regular human again."
"There's got to be a clear separation between ... the end of the workday and and switching off, because that's really big when it comes to mental health and that kind of that energy system. Because if we're here for 300 days and you're on for 300 days, by the time we need you to really kick on, you've got nothing left, right? The energy tank, the emotional tank, is sapped. So I always tell them, go find things that make you fulfilled that help fill that emotional energy tank because you're going to need it."
The other thing Test tells players is to be vulnerable. If things are going badly in your life, be honest about it. Maybe you're not in a place to put 100% into the team right now ... maybe you need to take care of something else first.
"Be realistic with yourself," Test continues. "Be vulnerable and open with your teammates and the people around. When I've been part of teams that do those three things, those are the best teams to be part of, because they enjoy every single moment with each other. If you've been through the trenches with your teammate, and you've shared some hard stories of your life. When that moment comes ... you both know that you have each other's back."
Keeping It In Perspective
So that's the play part, what about the team? As we said, the Eagles have shown well in plucky losses to top teams, only to find wins elusive against lower-ranked teams.
"When you're pushing against the big dogs, [getting the details right] helps you win that 50-50 moment that you may necessarily would have won otherwise. And then when you play against those bottom teams because you've done those little things right because you've set your standards at where it is, you're never willing to compromise and go down to a level. So therefore there's always that consistency of performance and play is there because we've set it right as far as our process of how we focus on the little things, how we set our standards."
With performance, there's the need for a team culture.
"I think everyone talks about culture, right? Everyone's like culture culture. Well, I asked the boys last week I said, What is culture? How do we define culture? Well if you actually look at what culture is, it's kind of a four-pronged effect that goes into one thing. It's who's your ... what's your identity? Who are you? How do you operate? How does everyone see you? What's your style of play that you can identify? What's your identity as a playing group?
"The second part is, what is your values? Right? What are the core principles that are shared and agreed upon that guide our actions and interactions? What are those core principles? What are those core values? Then from there, what's your purpose? What is our shared journey? Where are we going? Are we all aligned in that journey? Are we all aligned in the purpose that we're trying to go at? And then having a unique playing style.
"So identity, purpose values, unique playing style, those four things with a foundation of standards. That's culture."
Test wants the team to return to the upper echelon of the SVNS World Series. He wants them to return to being the best restart team in the World—something he helped them become as a player. But he knows it will take time.
"We can't climb the mountain all at once," he said. "We're just we're taking each day one day at a time, being present, focusing on us and our process, and how we do things. And it's been really good the first couple of days, but the big thing for us is, how can we be consistent through this for the first month, three months, six months, 12 months, two years. Because if we can really dial in on that consistency of all that, then the rugby becomes easy. Because now we get to do things tactically, really fun, because we know that the base is is built and cemented down."
