The USA Women’s Sevens have named their squad for RugbyX, a new five-on-five tournament that will be held at The O2 in London on Oct 29.
Assistant Coach Warren Abrahams will be the head coach for the event for the USA. The team includes six of the 12 players that recently won gold at home in Glendale, CO for the opening round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, while seven also won silver just before that at the Pan American Games in Lima.
Alev Kelter, the most capped USA Women’s Sevens player, will serve as co-captain alongside Kayla Canett.
Club Sevens Champion Kayla Lawson from the San Diego Surfers and tournament standout Saskia ‘Kiki’ Morgan from Scion Rugby join the squad. Morgan won the Las Vegas Invitational with the USA Falcons in March.
The USA, Ireland, England, and France are participating in RugbyX. Each side will play two games in total starting with a group match where the U.S. faces Ireland and then a final for either 3rd/4th place or the title.
RugbyX is a full-contact version of the sport played on a half-sized pitch with no lineouts, scrums, conversions or penalty kicks. Standard rules for the sport still apply with more details on format, as well as tickets, available at rugbyx.com. Broadcast information is still to be confirmed.
USA Rugby Comments
“I am really looking forward to leading this group of players, into an exciting new format of the game,” said Coach Abrahams. “RugbyX will provide us with another great opportunity to continue building on this exciting learning journey and keep challenging ourselves individually against the world’s best. I have no doubt the atmosphere at the O2 arena will be amazing but it’s imperative we enjoy the moment and represent the badge with pride.”
USA WOMEN’S Sevens: 1 Alev Kelter (Co-Captain) 2 Alena Olsen 3 Cheta Emba 4 Emily Henrich 5 Fane Haungatau 6 Jazmine Gray 7 Kasey McCravey 8 Kayla Lawson 9 Kayla Canett (Co-Captain) 10 Naya Tapper 11 Saskia Morgan 12 Stephanie Rovetti
USA STAFF: High-Performance Director Emilie Bydwell, Head Coach Warren Abrahams, Athletic Trainer Hilary Stepansky
RUGBYX SCHEDULE
vs Ireland | 11:55 AM ET
3rd/4th Place Playoff | 3:40 PM ET
Final | 4:25 PM ET
*Broadcast information TBD.
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