GRR: National Teams
The USA Women's 7s outing in Vancouver was small, but a baby step toward the next chapter.
The Eagles beat Canada twice, by the same 22-12 score in fact, and slammed Mexico (who, unfortunately weren't able to score a point all weekend), but could not get past Great Britain, losing 41-12 in Pool Play and 34-12 in the final.
The HSBC Sevens World Series has started in a slightly different form, and a new-look USA men's team is looking fairly good.
With various countries able or not able to travel due to COVID fears, the tournament this weekend in Vancouver has 12 men's teams, including Great Britain (usually represented by three separate national teams) Germany, Chile, Hong Kong, Jamaica, and Mexico.
The improvement of the USA Men's 15s team from one week to the next was actually not that much of a surprise.
The USA started with the clear intention of attacking wide, with both wings, Christian Dyer and Ryan Matyas getting the ball early. They used prop Joe Taufete’e to crash up the middle, too, and eventually forced Canada to infringe, giving captain AJ MacGinty an easy penalty attempt, which he converted.
Going into this weekend’s second leg of the Rugby World Cup qualifying series with Canada, the USA team is certainly feeling chastened.
Captain AJ MacGinty, who was critical of his own performance, remembered the Monday team meeting after the loss.