USA Rugby Falcons 4th at American Sevens, Mar del Plata, Argentina

January 11, 2016

USA Rugby Falcons 4th at American Sevens, Mar del Plata, Argentina

American Sevens -Mar del Plata, Argentina Jan. 9-10, 2016

Doug Coil

Essential to the USA Rugby Eagles Sevens team’s development is creating an expanding pool of players that can challenge for a position and step into the Eagles Sevens, as needed. This is the group that played in the American Sevens, Mar del Plata, Argentina on Jan. 9-10, 2016 and will play in the Viña del Mar Sevens, Chile on January 16-17, 2016.

The USA Falcons spent only a few days together prior to leaving on the South American tour. Several had played together in October at the Halloween 7s in Tampa, Florida, but the key to the tour will be how they progress playing against international competition.

The USA Falcons were in Pool B with Chile, Brazil and Argentina. In Pool A were South Africa 7s Academy, Uruguay, Canada and Paraguay.

In Pool play the Falcons opened against Chile who proved to be a formidable opponent losing 15-19. Brazil was next and resulted in a 19-7 win for the USA. The final pool match was against host Argentina. This was expected to be the toughest opponent and the Falcons ended up losing 5-20. This placed them third in their Pool.

In Cup Quarterfinal action, the Falcons opened day 2 against second seeded Pool B Uruguay. The Falcons showed their resolve in winning 19-12 and advanced to the Cup Semi-finals against Argentina. The Falcons had improved from day 1 and narrowly lost to Argentina 14-20. This placed them vying for 3rd place against Chile. They lost the final match 7-17, but secured 4th place.

In their Pool, Argentina won the Cup, Chile was third, the USA Falcons 4th and Brazil 5th. Other team finishes included South Africa second, Uruguay sixth, Canada seventh and Paraguay eighth.

USA Falcons | 2016 South America Tour
Aaron Davis – Columbus Rugby Club / Tiger Rugby
Alex Faison-Donahoe – Kutztown University
Seth Halliman – Central Washington University / Men’s Eagles Sevens
Tua Laei – Brigham Young University / Rugby Utah
Peter Malcolm – Wheeling Jesuit University
Kingsley McGowan – Trinity College
Jope Motokana – Seattle Saracens / ATAVUS Academy
Aladdin Schirmer – Central Washington University
ConRoy Smith – Northern Virginia Rugby Club
Joey Sok – Columbus Rugby Club / Men’s Eagles Sevens
Mike Te’o – Men’s Eagles Sevens
Anthony Welmers – Davenport University

USA Falcons | Coaching Staff
Andrew Locke – Coach
Brian Finn – Physiotherapist
Sean Lindersmith – Manager

Results

Pool B

USA Falcons 15-19 Chile J9

USA 19-7 Brazil

USA 5-20 Argentina

Argentina 26-0 Brazil

Argentina 31-14 Chile

Chile 33-7 Brazil

Pool A

Canada 14-17 Uruguay

South Africa 50-0 Paraguay