June of 2013, was the time of the Rugby Sevens World Cup in Moscow, Russia. After working the USA Rugby sevens event in Las Vegas for the past 2 years, I have grown interested more in sevens rugby and have been following it online. The USA Eagles sevens team was put in the Pool with New Zealand, Canada and Georgia. Every team in the pool had the athletes to win the whole tournament. USA showed a great effort, but again were fallen short and left the fans disappointed.
One game in particular I wanted to bring up was the third match with USA v. New Zealand. USA showed signs of brilliance with scoring right out of the gate and giving the New Zealand offense consistent pressure on the defensive side. Especially on kick-offs, the United States were fighting to get the ball back every time it was kicked in the air. At half the score was 19 - 5, USA. The second half did not even look like the same team. Costly knocks and fumbling the ball led the way for New Zealand's comeback. The rest is history, because USA did not show any offense in the second half, and New Zealand capitalized on our mistakes. New Zealand wins the match and ends up winning the whole tournament. Also, Canada would go on to win the Plate. Thats a good sign for the Eagles after having really close games with both well-respected teams.
Rugby Sevens is being introduced back into the Olympics in 2016. The USA Eagles still have time to groom some cross-over athletes into rugby players. Players like Zach Test (former Oregon WR) & Carlin Isles (former football/track star) have made the leap into sevens for a chance to represent their country in the biggest stage.
Think you got what it takes? You can even apply for the Eagles on their website http://www.usarugby.org/
As far as the competition, we will just have to wait; but for now it seems we are heading in the right direction. Just need some fine tuning.