GRR: National Teams
Looking better than they have in a while, the USA Men's 7s team is 2-0 going into Day Two at the Sydney 7s.
With a tournament played in blistering heat, the Eagles managed to handle it better than most, despite captain Ben Pinkelman's protestations after having to make two big runs in the worst of it.
It kind of ended up being the same story for the USA Men this weekend at the Hamilton 7s.
Play well against middling teams, and then struggle against stronger opposition.
In fact, this time the Eagles ended up struggling as they lost 26-7 to Canada in the 5th-6th playoff.
The new format for the Hamilton 7s may have rankled some, OK, pretty much everybody, but the USA Women's 7s team can really only blame themselves for not making the top four.
The World Sevens Series is back with the Hamilton 7s and another change in the format.
Instead of sending the top two teams from each pool to the quarterfinals, only the pool winners will go on to the Cup Semis.
Changing the formats—earlier the new plan had teams that lost in the quarterfinals get no more games—is so men and women can fit in the same venue at the same time.
Bruce McLane checks in with Alex Goff and Goff poses the question: why do non-US-college players outnumber US college alums on the men's Eagles?
And further, are we making mistakes on what kinds of players we put on the national team, or even MLR teams?
It's a wild journey through MIT on YouTube, college recruiting, MLR signings, and more.
Listen below.