Final squads confirmed for Los Angeles 7s

The HSBC Men’s World Sevens Series returns on Saturday in Los Angeles. It’s the fifth stop on the 2019-2020 calendar, one that has now been severely disrupted with the Asian leg postponed from April to October due to the coronavirus.

After a decade of being hosted in Las Vegas, the USA stop returns to LA for the first time since 2006. DHS Park will again welcome the series with two days of action beginning on Saturday, February 29. As this is a men’s only event, the knockout format has returned to its more conventional style with a full set of Quarter Finals to be played on Sunday.

The USA enter the tournament as the highest-ranked of the three Americas entries in 6th place overall. They welcome back captain Madison Hughes after he sat on the sidelines in Sydney. Both Perry Baker and Carlin Isles are set to join an illustrious club as they are both on 199 career circuit tries. Only six men have previously reached the 200-try plateau.

Argentina are in 8th spot and will look to recalled playmaker Lautaro Bazán Vélez to add a spark. He plays his 30th tournament with Olympic captain Gastón Revol hitting the 80 mark. 20-year-old Lucio Cinti comes into the forwards in place of veteran Fernando Luna.

Entering in 10th spot are Canada, who slipped in Sydney but have two key additions to their roster for LA. Conor Trainor returns to the fold for the first time in four years, while top try scorer Justin Douglas has recovered from injury to play his first tournament of the season. Captain Harry Jones is set to appear in his 70th World Sevens event.

All-time record try-scorer Dan Norton plays his 90th stop for England, a mark equaled by New Zealand captain Tim Mikkelson. Reaching the half-century in LA are South Africa center Werner Kok and Kenya forward Willy Ambaka. Former Seattle Seawolves flanker Andre Coquillard will play for invitational side South Korea.

Live broadcasts will be available on NBC Sports Gold in the USA, the CBC Sports website in Canada, and ESPN in Latin and South America.

A full list of rosters can be seen here. The complete fixture list is available here.

 

ARGENTINA
Santiago Álvarez (capt.), Lautaro Bazán Vélez, Lucio Cinti, Rodrigo Etchart, Luciano González Rizzoni, Rodrigo Isgro, Santiago Mare, Marcos Moneta, Marcos Moroni, Matías Osadczuk, Gastón Revol, Germán Schulz, Tomás Vanni (alternate)

CANADA
Phil Berna, Connor Braid, Justin Douglas, Mike Fuailefau, Lucas Hammond, Nathan Hirayama, Harry Jones (capt.), Isaac Kaay, Pat Kay, David Richard, Theo Sauder, Jake Thiel (alternate), Conor Trainor

USA
Perry Baker, Danny Barrett, Maceo Brown (alternate), Naima Fuala’au, Madison Hughes (capt.), Martin Iosefo, Carlin Isles, Cody Melphy, Ben Pinkelman, Joe Schroeder, Stephen Tomasin, Maka Unufe, Kevon Williams

 

AMERICAS DAY ONE FIXTURES

10:29 PT / 13:29 ET – POOL A – Argentina vs France
11:13 PT / 14:13 ET – POOL B – Ireland vs Canada
12:19 PT / 15:19 ET – POOL C – USA vs Samoa

13:25 PT / 16:25 ET – POOL A – Argentina vs South Korea
14:53 PT / 17:53 ET – POOL B – South Africa vs Canada
15:37 PT / 18:37 ET – POOL C – USA vs Scotland

17:05 PT / 20:05 ET – POOL A – Fiji vs Argentina
18:35 PT / 21:35 ET – POOL B – Canada vs Kenya
20:03 PT / 23:03 ET – POOL C – USA vs Australia