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USA 7s Head Coach Mike Friday has made one change to his roster heading into the Cape Town 7s in South Africa. After finishing 3rd in Dubai, the Eagles are riding their best ever start to a World Series season. Mike Te’o has been brought into the squad to replace Nate Augsperger (wedding). A few players are nursing injuries from Dubai, so Friday has also brought in Thretton Palamo from London Welsh to serve as cover in the event one of their forwards go down.
The USA leads Pool C followed by Australia, Wales, and Portugal. Both Wales and Portugal struggled in Dubai while Australia feel in the Cup Quarterfinals to Fiji.
The Eagles open up the Cape Town Sevens by taking on Wales. The Welsh side has fallen on some hard times and is now more likely to find their way to the Bowl Round compared to the Cup. The two sides have traditionally played each other closely as noted by an average score of 22-17 in 27 games. Wales leads the all-time series 20-7, but the run of play in recent years has been in favor of the USA. Wales hasn’t beaten the USA since January of 2014 and the last time the two teams met in Hong Kong last March the USA came away with a 40-12 win. While the goal is to win all three pool matches, Wales is the must-have match for the USA. A win over Wales will put the USA in the pole position to reach the Cup.
Portugal follows in pool play and gives the USA to opportunity to secure their place in the Cup before playing their final pool match. Portugal was arguably the worst team in Dubai last weekend. The USA beat them 45-14 in pool play and it was pretty much more of the same for the remainder of the tournament. Once a team that gave the Eagles trouble, Portugal has fallen well behind the USA. The USA holds an all-time 16-8 record over Portugal, but haven’t lost to the Europeans in almost two years. The Eagles need to put Portugal to the sword early and build momentum heading into their final pool match.
In their final pool match, the USA faces off against Australia in what should be one of the highlight matches of Day 1. In the last meeting between the two, the USA defeated Australia 45-22 to win the London 7s. Australia holds an all-time series lead of 28-5, but as with many of the other traditional powers, matches in the last couple of years have been very competitive. The winner of this one should take the pool.
On the back of their strong finish to the 2014/2015 season and hot start to the 2015/2016 season, the USA looks to carry that momentum to South Africa and continue their push towards the 2016 Rio Olympics. The USA kicks off play at the Cape Town 7s on Saturday December 12th. Stay tuned for coverage and results from the tournament.
USA 7s Roster for Cape Town
Carlin Isles
Matai Leuta
Brett Thompson
Garrett Bender
Zach Test
Kevin Swiryn
Folau Niua
Maka Unufe
Mike Te’o
Madison Hughes
Perry Baker
Will Holder
