Next-gen 7s Eagles know the way forward

None of the USA's Australia 7s finalists had played in more than 15 World Series tournaments, an unusual achievement.

The best-ever finish indicates the Eagles have all but replaced the Todd Clever-Chris Wyles generation which lifted the US to new heights during the first half of the 2008-09 series. Done without the suspended Paul Emerick, a marked man, it also suggests there's more to come. 

The accomplishment is manifold. First, Al Caravelli's scouting has been effective and roster decisions have been transparent. Trials camps, in addition to making good use of funding and facilities, have regularly included new faces, thereby creating healthy competition. Players know what it takes to make the team.

Second, coaching has prepared the athletes. That may sound obvious, but it is not. Too often one hears talk of 'in form' players or 'player-centric' gameplans, which amount to little more than abdicating responsibility for equipping the team to compete.

Third, the squad is becoming more consistent. After failing to score at 7 consecutive tournaments, raising doubts about retaining core status on the Sevens World Series, the Eagles have mounted twice mounted the kind of winning streaks that separate the achievers from the also-rans.

With 8 different teams having reached the semifinals at least once this season -- plus South Africa, which surprisingly hasn't won any quarterfinal matches -- the 2009-10 Series is more competitive than ever. Hong Kong and the end-of-season European tournaments loom. 

It is not outlandish to worry that the USA will struggle to score again, and the IRB has (predictably) declined to indicate the criteria for core status. Still, having broken new ground and currently in a tie for ninth place, the Eagles are undeniably an asset to the series. They are an improving team, a team the leaders should beat but might not, a team that adds excitement.

More significant, the 7s Eagles look to have developed a model for identifying and training players and winning matches.

United States to Hong Kong 7s
Marco Barnard (Kutztown Univ.), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Nick Edwards (New York AC), Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Valenese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Zach Pangelinan (OMBAC), Leonard Peters (Gentlemen of Aspen), Tom Saunders (Kansas City Blues), Shalom Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (captain, Old Puget Sound Beach), Zach Test (Loughborough Univ.)

Comments

[Jack Sparrow]

Big fan of Al Caravelli - should have been recognized as Coach of the Year in 2009.

[DaTruth]

Agreed, Jack. The Men's 7's program is the most professionally-run (not to mention successful) "product" that USA Rugby has at the moment.

Granted, they had an ideal route to the Cup Final in Oz, but still -- to essentially start from scratch and build the current team to where it is now is nothing short of impressive.

[Flynn Hagerty]

I think at this point you have to look at Al as not just a great 7s coach for an American, but one of the best 7s coaches in the world. To rebuild a team in that space of time is really impressive.

[Frank Grieco]

If you ever meet Al you will quickly understand why he has made the gains that he has. I have had the privilege of learning from him and for and against some of his sides in the past. The players loved him and they believe in him. He is bringing respect to American Rugby and does us proud. Cheers. Now lets get up the rankings a bit more!!

[Eat Beef]

Al is from Agrentina. He plays it up when it served him, and plays up the USA angle when it doesn't.

[ShoeFly Pie]

Marco Barnard - Kutztown Univ

If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much

[Greg Hallow]

Caraveli was born in NY. lived 8 yrs in Argentina. I've never heard him sway towards Argentina. He gives you the facts. In Las Vegas before the tournament I heard him say, I'm American, I played in Argentina through my father who was born in Argentina. That is where I learned my rugby. I'm proud to be an American & it is truly a privilege to coach the USA.

[Uncle Sam]

Don't mess with Al. Al shits red white and blue. He loves guns and Jesus too. U S A!!! U S A!!!

[SD Hitman]

Al was the gutsiest of scrumhalves to have ever played in US club rugby. Ask anyone who played with or against him in his time at LARC or OBNY. His forwards always went to war for him and respected his toughness when he got involved in the "tight" stuff. This is undoubtedly reflected in his coaching style....

[Bruce McLane]

Richard Every is this week's guest on www.ruggamatrixusa.com and he discusses the law interpretations in an honest way.

[college]

Bruce, sounds good. But here is a request. You've mentioned more than a few times on the ARN podcasts and now Ruggamatrix that you despise "drill coaches" and think game situation type stuff is better. Do you or anyone on NYAC staff have any examples or places to go for that stuff? It's hard for coaches to come up with the stuff you are talking about on their own and I think that is why many resort to a bunch of drills.

[Bruce McLane]

A couple of things that we do that is game like without all the kicking butt would be

1. Play rough touch with the initial defender retreating to the far sideline and allowing a contest for the ball from the next player in, ball carrier must go down and do a score the try technique and either rip back and present or use a squeeze ball. Early on you may not want to allow turnovers. Attack usually puts 1,2,or 3 over depending on numbers in the game, you can allow kicking to provide depth if you want.
in this you look for guys to be set up to hit the next phase in attack so they work off the ball and you look for the defense to reset onsides and be ready for the next phase of play.

2. we do a lot of channel touch where we break the field into 3 channels, it can be equal or at the 15's, early on equal size channels work, what you do is allow only 2 phases in a channel and then they must go to another channel or it is a turnover. sometimes we allow one phase in the middle and 3 on the sides, but usually 2 in the middle and 2-4 down the sides.

3. we do dropoff touch where we may play 9 v 9 cross field, touched player must go down and place with score the try technique and no one over, just a HB and defense reset. in a 9 v 9 game, we would give 3 defenders #1, 3 get #2, 3 get #3 and when the coach calls a number those players must retreat to the goal line and get back in play, initially we used it as a drill for attack to recognize and exploit opportunity, the players however thought it was a defensive communication drill so it actually was great for both sides of the ball.

We play the offload game, where a guy gets tagged and must offload before he gets tagged again by another player or before he takes a 3rd step after being tagged, if there is no one to offload to, go down and reset with score the try technique, 2nd time in a row that happens is a turnover.

we play rough touch from live set pieces and you can either have the defender retreat to sideline or back, or you can have defender hit deck and get up to play. often we will have the B side go live on defense in the set, but not allow the A side to contest the LO and the scrum they hit and lock to give them a better chance to attack.

we put 12-15 bags out and just go up and down the field using our pattern and clearing out live, if they make a mistake or are lazy, we chuck a ball 20-30 yards back and make them play from there. (this takes a lot out of guys)

we will stress the defense for instance we may put the 1st side 9-10-15 and wings with the 2nds so that they operate efficiently and the players left over must play defense along the field with 10 or 11 guys and cover the whole place with 2 guys in the tackle zone (rough touch), it facilitates communication and speeds up the play of the 2nds. it is important to build into this, initially only move the 10 and maybe a wing, then maybe add 15, then the other wing, and then 9 (he is the cop coordinating the defense so we move him last)
this is a great exercise because players must work things out under pressure and they can start to complain and blame, so you can nip all that in the bud, before it happens in a big game.

in the pack we may do live driving mauls to practice scoring, we do live pick and go to practice scoring, we do live scrums with back row moves to train scoring. all of these things where we train scoring are similar to when we train our exit strategies to get a good kick away.

the backs and back row play a rough touch game while the tight 5 works on tight work, it is more flowing and open

the backs play a kicking game to sort out kick chase, it has scoring depending on how you run, catch or kick out of trouble.

the pack does live LO where the A side tells the B side the call and they still have to win the ball.

we work on defensive roles rough touch through 1-2 phases and show a multitude of looks

basically we just want to keep people moving and get them to understand things within the context of the game

the key things, we have coaches looking at both sides of the ball in attack and defense

we don't allow a score unless everyone gets over the line within 5 seconds of crossing the line to ensure that we chase all breaks

we call a turnover if players do not use the score the try placement technique.

in the event of turnovers we play our turnover policy, and sometimes we will tell a player in a game that the 1st or 2nd time that you touch the ball to turn it over so that we see the team play from turnover ball and we see how the attack reacts when ball is turned over.

hope this helps