Madison Hughes' 7s Eagles, off to their best start in half a decade, enter the weekend's Las Vegas tournament looking to develop a knack for winning elimination games.
Having drawn Japan and Portugal as well as South Africa, 8th-placed America should reach the winner's bracket a third consecutive outing. But the Eagles have dropped both quarterfinal contests, last weekend surrendering a 15-0 lead over Scotland, and are a modest 2-3 in high-stakes cup and plate games.
The 2014-15 7s World Series means little in comparison with June's NACRA 7s tournament, North America's regional qualifier for the 2016 Summer Games. Winning is vital: only one team, effectively Canada or the US, advances to Rio de Janeiro. (Though there is a repechage path, contenders from Europe and the Pacific Islands figure to make it much more complex.)
Olympic 7s is one of American rugby's main storylines. With ex-players driving growth among youth, the Summer Games crown rugby as the Super Bowl does football. Failure to qualify would puncture the game emotionally, structurally, economically.
US Olympic Committee funding turns on rugby's classification as not only a medal sport but also a podium contender. TV coverage of events like the USA 7s, the Collegiate Rugby Championship, and the Varsity Cup also would be at risk should the Eagles miss Rio. While the privately managed Olympic development academies have bolstered USARFU's sometimes-troubled 'offsite residency' program at the Olympic Training Center near San Diego, online media hardly does the same for for broadcast.
ODA athletes such as Tiger's Perry Baker have quickly become important to the roster of first-year coach Mike Friday. Under the English 7s specialist, previously successful with Kenya, the Eagles have improved offensively. Baker, the former Arena football player, complements speedster Carlin Isles and the athletic Zach Test, all of whom are among the Series' top 25 in tries scored. Hughes, meanwhile, is 6th in overall scoring.
Canada, which has started slowly, lies in 14th place. But the Maple Leafs are notoriously difficult in elimination matches. The pair have met just once this season, in a pool match at October's Gold Coast 7s, won 17-15 by the US on a last-minute try by Test.
"Failure to qualify would puncture the game emotionally, structurally, economically."
Severe understatement, this.
The Big 3 (USA, China, & Russia) have not taken to Olympic rugby quite the way the IOC envisioned they might. Of all the sports coverage on the internet, only NBC Sports currently lists rugby as a Summer Olympic Sport - ESPN/ABC, Fox Sports, CBS have not made the update.
Word out of the USOC camp is that while USOC maintains a cheerful demeanor about rugby in the media, they are very concerned about the women's podium chances in 2016 (it is a fore-gone conclusion in that camp that the men will not podium in Rio). IF none of the Big 3 make the podium in Rio for either gender, then IOC may look dimly on maintaining rugby after 2020.
World Rugby seems to think it can piggyback on the brand of the Olympics to increase exposure of it's brand. WR is not leveraging the Olympics as a marketing tool very effectively. Instead, they are more worried about carriage agreements with national networks than about putting themselves on blast to the world and letting the carriage agreements come calling on them.
Fiji had to take over (essentially HACK) the feed from the HSBC 7s to prevent their people from rioting because WR did not possess a carriage agreement to broadcast in that nation. It took a ton of griping and complaining from the US Rugby Community to get Universal Sports to live-stream (not broadcast) every match of each HSBC Series and those morons STILL cannot maintain continuous coverage.
Gosper needs to right the marketing and broadcast ship of WR.
Posted by: Grant | 13 February 2015 at 05:15
"..are a modest 2-3 in high-stakes cup and plate games."
Nothing personal Kurt but you are truly a glass half empty sort of guy … how about the glass half full perspective - the Eagles are playing in the cup and plate bracket as opposed to the bowl and shield. It's a step in the right direction at the right time.
Posted by: doug | 13 February 2015 at 18:31
@doug, We've been settling for "a step in the right direction" for too many years (since 2006 to be exact) only to let that blind us to the 2-3 steps in the wrong direction thereafter.
That's just plain stupid of the US rugby community to allow that. We've been sold down a river. I say that is total BS!
The Men's Eagles should be place no less than 6th in every HSBC 7s Tournament. The Women's Eagles should place no less than 3rd in every WSWS Tourney. Accepting anything less is mediocrity that should be unseemly to Americans.
Posted by: Grant | 14 February 2015 at 06:00
The IOC will be just fine with the rugby 7s in RIO. The event will be a complete sell out and the fans will spend more money on food, drink, apparel and local wares than the 3 top events combined. They will bring a whole new audience to the games both in person and on TV. Doesn't matter if the USA, Russia or China are in it or not. Think of it as a Lions tour on steroids, and that will be the impact in Rio.
Posted by: $$$$ | 16 February 2015 at 13:59
Saying "That's just plain stupid of the US rugby community to allow that." implies that the community has sway over USA Rugby and the national team which they do not. USA Rugby is setup to have very little accountability to the community. The role of the community is to develop rugby players and purchase tickets to rugby events.
Posted by: Wtf | 17 February 2015 at 03:26
@Wtf
"USA Rugby is setup to have very little accountability to the community." Very correct and why Kurt started this page in the first place. This flies in the face of Title 15 section 220522 and could be grounds for replacement under 220528 if the community were organized enough to mount a proper resistance.
And that's why I say it's just plain stupid. US Law gives us a way to ouster the lack of accountability. No one does it because of the guilt they'd feel for breaking up the party.
What Keith Seaber and friends brought together was great, but it's been hijacked. There are some on the inside trying to get it back (and I love them for that). And maybe that's a way to do it: get work there, apply to be on the board, get elected to USAR congress, get on a committee.
"Purchasing tickets to rugby events", though? that is exactly all they want us doing.
Posted by: Grant | 17 February 2015 at 03:44