The Oktoberfest Sevens will be held in Munich, Germany at the former Olympic Stadium on September 21-22, 2019. There will be eight national teams participating and all matches in the USA will be streamed on florugby.com/
The USA Men’s Sevens Team will be led by USA Men’s Sevens Assistant Coach Phil Greening with Cody Melphy picked as Captain. USA selections were made to provide more game time for the wider player pool against international competition.
There were several standouts at the 2019 USA Club Sevens National Championship. As a result of their performance, Corey Jones, Gavan Morrison, and Aren Marten were named to the squad. Morrison played for Old Blue and for Rugby United New York, Jones played for NAV Sevens and Maten with the Kansas City Blues.
The USA will face Fiji in Pool play at 8 am ET on September 21. They then will play Germany and England later that day. Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa will comprise Pool A.
Knockout stages begin on September 22 at 5 AM ET. Details are available at oktoberfest7s.com/zeitplan.
USA Rugby Comments
“This is an excellent opportunity early in the preseason for these players to showcase against the best sevens nations in the world. We are under no illusion how tough of an assignment this willbe,” said Coach Greening. “I have no doubt these athletes will embrace the challenge of representing the United States in what will be a packed and exciting sevens atmosphere in Munich.”
“I am really excited to see how these young men rise to the challenge with the quality of opposition they will face,” said Mike Friday, Head Coach of the USA Men’s Sevens program.“This will be a significant test and, with that, an opportunity for them individually and collectively develop their technical and tactical skills. This group will need to be robust and resilient to meetthe challenge and responsibility of wearing the jersey.”
USA MEN’S SEVENS ROSTER: 1. Ben Broselle (USA Sevens Residency) 2. Jake Lachina (Army West Point) 3. Corey Jones (NAV Sevens) 4. Gavan Morrison (RUNY / Old Blue) 5. Anthony Welmers (USA Sevens Residency) 6. Harley Wheeler (Rugby ATL) 7. Naima Fualaau (USA Sevens Residency) 8. Cody Melphy (C) (USA Sevens Residency) 9. Lauina Falatea (USA Sevens Residency) 10. Maceo Brown (USA Sevens Residency) 11. Marcus Tupuola (USA Sevens Residency) 12. Aren Marten (Kansas City Blues)
USA MEN’S SEVENS STAFF – OKTOBERFEST SEVENS: Head Coach Phil Greening, Assistant Coach & Team Manager JD Stephenson, Assistant Coach Anthony Roques, Athletic Trainer Danielle Allen, Performance Analyst Dave Gardner
A schedule for Oktoberfest Sevens will be available closer to date onoktoberfest7s.com/zeitplan and florugby.com.
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