USA Rugby Eagles 7s Men & Women Look Toward Winning NACRA 7s & Qualifying for the Olympics

USA Rugby Eagles 7s Men & Women Look Toward Winning NACRA 7s & Qualifying for the Olympics

Doug Coil June 9, 2015

The North American Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Sevens rugby tournament will be held this weekend, June 13-14^th, at Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary, NC. The tournament serves as North American Regional Olympic Qualifier, one of 6 Regional qualifiers for teams that did not finish in the top 4 standings after the World Rugby Sevens Men’s- HSBC series or the Women’s series.

At the end of the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Men’s top 4 teams were Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and England. The USA finished 6^th in the standings, a significant improvement from last year’s 13^th place finish.

For the Women, the top 4 teams were New Zealand, Canada, Australia and England. The USA actually tied England with 76 points, but came in 5^th after a 15-14 loss at Amsterdam to England.

Brazil is hosting the Olympics during August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. As such, the host country is also part of the 12 men’s and women’s team that will compete for Olympic glory.

This past weekend the South American Regional was held. Undefeated Argentina (Men) and Colombia (Women) also have now qualified as regional winners.

At the end of the Regional Qualifiers, there will be one global repechage that consist a tournament with 16 Men’s and Women’s teams. The winner will qualify as the 12^th team. The 16 teams for that tournament that will be selected from each region are as follows: South America 2, Asia 3, Africa 3, Europe 4, North America 2 and Oceania 2. As a result of the CONSUR South American Regional Tournament, Uruguay & Chile will represent the men and Argentina & Venezuela, the women in the repechage.

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It has been a good year for both the Men’s & Women’s Eagles 7s. The Men improved on their performance in the HSBC Sevens World Series standing to 6^th from 13^th a year ago. The men also just won their first Cup at the London 7s. The Women tied England for 4^th in the World Rugby Sevens Women’s Series, but finished 5^th after a narrow loss to England in the Netherlands.

Mike Friday, along with Chris Brown and Alex Magleby, deserve congratulations for developing a culture and a program where the men now enter tournaments believing they are competing as contenders to win. Ric Suggitt, the USA Women’s Eagles 7s Head Coach also has his squad’s performance improve during the season.

When reflecting on the Men’s Eagles challenge of qualifying for the Olympics, Madison Hughes, the Men’s Eagles 7s Captain, indicated in an interview with Dartmouth College Recreation, that as good it was to win the London 7s, that the NACRA 7s is even bigger.

“I told the guys shortly after London, this is amazing and no one is happier about this than I am, but I can tell you that if in a month we lose in North Carolina, we will look back on this with an incredibly bitter sweet feeling because there will be a sense that if we didn’t have this success, maybe we would have pushed ourselves to go and win in North Carolina.”

Let’s hope that the Eagles win the NACRA 7s, as that would be hindsight.

Madison continues to say that the NACRA 7s highlights the sacrifices that team members have made in the quest of their Olympic dream. “It is absolutely everything. Pretty much everyone on the team is not pursuing contracts in Europe and all that because they want to be in the Olympics. It is something we’ve talked about all year and something we’ve worked hard for all year. Every conditioning session we are doing, in the back of our mind we have been thinking that come June 13 and 14 we have to be in position where we can qualify for the Olympics.”

In the end Mike Friday is also pushing for a meaningful wage for our athletes to improve their quality of life and also to ward off the Europeans professional clubs in the mean time.

This brings us to the focus of the NACRA 7s where the matches will be streamed live via USA Rugby TV http://www.usarugbytv.com

There are favorites for this event. For the men, it is expected that the USA Eagles 7s will meet Canada in the final, while the USA Women are clear favorites. Canada has selected a strong side, but it is hoped that the USA’s speed and cohesion will be the deciding factor in the end.

USA Squads

Men: Mike Friday has selected a 13 man traveling squad today, June 9^th, that will be narrowed to 12.

Women: Ric Suggitt announced the 12 person squad yesterday.

USA Men Eagles 7s

1 Nate Augspurger

2 Perry Baker

3 Danny Barrett

4 Garrett Bender

5 Andrew Durutalo

6 Madison Hughes, Captain

7 Martin Iosefo

8 Carlin Isles

9 Folau Niua

10 Zack Test

11 Brett Thompson

12 Maka Unufe

13 Chris Wyles

Women Eagles 7s

1 Joanne Fa’avesi

2 Kelly Griffin

3 Kate Zackary

4 Alev Kelter

5 Dana Meschisi

6 Lauren Doyle

7 Kristen Thomas

8 Richelle Stephens

9 Melissa Fowler

10 Hannah Lopez

11 Lorrie Clifford

12 Carmen Farmer

USA Men’s Pool Schedule

Saturday June 13

1:22pm ET Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

3:44pm Barbados

6:06pm Mexico

Sunday June 14

9am Jamaica

USA Women’s Pool Schedule

Saturday June 13^th

11:44am Jamaica

2:06pm Barbados

4:28pm Cayman Islands

Men Pool A

USA

Mexico

Barbados

Jamaica

St Vincent and the Grenadines

Men’s Pool B

Canada

Guyana

Trinidad and Tobago

Cayman Islands

Bahamas

Women’s Pool A

USA

Cayman Islands

Jamaica

Barbados

Women’s Pool B

Mexico

Trinidad and Tobago

Bahamas

Guyana

NACRA 7s Match Schedule

Matches will be held at the Main Stadium (MS) and in Koka Booth Stadium (KB)

Saturday June 13^th ET

11am (MS) Men- Mexico v St Vincent

11am (KB) Men – Barbados v Jamaica

11:22am (MS) Men – Guyana v Bahamas

11:22am (KB) Trinidad & Tobago v Cayman Islands

11:44am (MS) Women- USA v Jamaica

11:44am (KB) Women- Cayman Islands v Barbados

12:06pm (MS) Women- Mexico v Bahamas

12:06pm (KB) Women- Trinidad & Tobago v Guyana

1:22pm (MS) Men – USA v St Vincent

1:22pm (KB) Men – Mexico v Jamaica

1:44pm (MS) Men – Canada v Bahamas

1:44pm (KB) Men – Guyana v Cayman Islands

2:06pm (MS) Women – USA v Barbados

2:06pm (KB) Women – Cayman Islands v Jamaica

2:28pm (MS) Women – Trinidad & Tobago v Bahamas

2:28pm (KB) Women – Mexico v Guyana

3:44pm (MS) Men – USA v Barbados

3:44pm (KB) Men – Jamaica v St Vincent

4:06pm (MS) Canada v Trinidad & Tobago

4:06pm (KB) Cayman Islands v Bahamas

4:28pm (MS) Women – USA v Cayman Islands

4:28pm (KB) Jamaica v Barbados

4:50pm (MS) Women – Mexico v Trinidad & Tobago

4:50pm Bahamas v Guyana

6:06pm (MS) Men – USA v Mexico

6:06pm (KB) Men – Barbados v St Vincent

6:28pm (MS) Canada v Guyana

6:28pm (KB) Trinidad & Tobago v Bahamas

Sunday June 14^th

9am (MS) Men – USA v Jamaica

9am (KB) Men – Mexico v Bahamas

9:22am (MS) Men – Canada v Cayman Islands

9:22am (KB) Men – Guyana v Trinidad & Tobago

9;44am (MS) Women – Pool A 1^st place v Pool B 2^nd Place

9:44am (KB) Women – Pool B 3^rd Place v Pool A 4^th Place

10:06am (MS) Women – Pool A 2^nd Place v Pool B 1^st place

10:60am (KB) Women – Pool B 4th Place v Pool A 3rd Place

11:45am (MS) Men Semi-Final – Pool A 1^st Place v Pool B 2^nd Place

11:45am (KB) Men Semi-Final Pool B 3^rd Place v Pool A 4^th Place

12:07pm (MS) Men Semi-Final Pool A 2^nd Place v Pool B 1^st Place

12:07pm (KB) Men Semi-final Pool B 4^th Place v Pool A 3^rd place

12:29pm (MS) Women Semi-Final Match 13 Winner v Match 15 Winner

12:29pm (KB) Women Semi-Final Match 13 Loser v Match 15 Loser

12:51pm (MS) Women Semi-Final Match 14 Winner v Match 16 Winner

12:51pm (KB) Women Semi-Final Match 14 Loser v Match 16 Loser

The remaining matches are in the Main Stadium.

2:30pm Men 9^th Place

2:52pm Women 7^th Place

3:14pm Men 7^th Place

3:36pm Women 5^th Place

3:58pm Men 5^th Place

4:20pm Women 3^rd Place

4:42pm men 3^rd Place

5:04pm Women 1^st Place

5:34pm Men 1^st Place