USA Men's Sevens Open 2020 Canada Sevens Beating Samoa

The HSBC Canada Sevens is being held on March 7-8, 2020 at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The USA Men’s Sevens finished fifth in Los Angeles after losing their Cup Quarterfinal to South Africa and claimed 13 points towards their Series standing. They are now ranked seventh overall with three stops until the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The USA is in Pool D and will face the same opponents as they did in Los Angeles in Samoa, Scotland, and Australia. The original Series format will return for Vancouver with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the Cup Quarterfinals and the bottom two being placed in the consolation rounds.

The USA opened pool play with a 19-5 win over Samoa and will face Scotland at 3:12 PM ET, and conclude pool play against Australia at 6:46 PM ET. The matches may be viewed in the U.S. on NBC Sports Gold.

USA vs Samoa Recap

Samoa attacked from the opening kick with David Afamasaga splitting defenders and perry Baker saving a potential try before a knock-on gave the USA a scrum. An offload by Martin Iosefo to Madison Hughes led to a long break with Namia Fuala’au drawing in defenders to offload to Perry Baker, who slipped then stepped Joe Perez for a try.

The USA pushed the lead to 12-0 following a Naima Fuala’au to Maceo Brown switch with Madison Hughes slotting the extras.

Second Half

A Samoa loose ball was gathered by Perry Baker with a wrap-around offload to Danny Barrett. it took two defenders to bring down Barrett and this freed up space for Martin Iosefo to ground the ball as he entered in-goal untouched. Steve Tomasin slotted the conversion to push the lead to 19-0.

Samoa’s Joe Perez went in-goal, but a tackle by Steve Tomasin had Perez losing the ball forward giving the USA a 5-meter scrum. The Eagles Sevens Maka Unufe ran to their 22-meters, but soon after a not releasing penalty turned the ball back to Samoa.

Samoa added a try by Tomasi Alosio after two consecutive penalties and Alosio taking the ball from a breakdown in-goal to cut the lead to 19-5.

The USA then closed out the match for an opening win. They will face Scotland next.

USA: 1. Carlin Isles (Wing, 56) 2. Malon Al-Jiboori (Prop/Hooker, 9) 3. Danny Barrett (Prop, 53) 4. Maceo Brown (Center,13) 5. Cody Melphy (Halfback, 5) 6. Kevon Williams (Halfback/Wing, 26) 7. Naima Fuala’au (Halfback, 7) 8. Maka Unufe (Center, 42) 9. Stephen Tomasin (Hooker, 36) 10. Madison Hughes (C) Halfback, 51) 11. Perry Baker (Wing, 46) 12. Martin Iosefo (Center, 45) 13. Ben Broselle (Center, 6)

STAFF

Head Coach Mike Friday
Assistant Coach Anthony Roques
Strength & Conditioning John Hood
Performance Analyst Dave Gardner
Athletic Trainer Brian Green
Team Manager Scott Novack