USA Hawks (development) team has mixed reviews in South America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Sudamérica_Rugby_Sevens

The USA Hawks sent their development team to the 2 South American tournaments. Fiji and Argentina also sent their development teams. Those 2 nations dominated this tournament. No other team could beat them. The USA development team got abused by them.

To keep things in perspective the USA Senior Sevens team is much more competitive and can beat Argentina, and challenges Fiji.

Chile and Uruguay senior Sevens teams placed 3rd and 4th and have now qualified for the Hong Kong Sevens. They will play against Jamaica and 8 other teams to total 12 teams. The winner of the World Series Qualifiers.

This was nice to send the development team to get in competitive games against other nations. The USA Hawks did well, remember these are young kids and they are playing away from home.

I do not know if this was Canada's development team. i am going to assume that it was. The USA and Canada ties in points after the 2 tournaments.


Next big tournament is the American Rugby Championship. 

USA Hawks (development team) in the South American tournamnets update

Puntadel Este, Uruguay

Pool A	Pool B
Fiji	Argentina
Chili	USA
Canada	Uruguay
Colombia	Brazil

            There will be two 7’s tournaments in South America. One will take place in Uruguay and the other in Chile. There will be 4 South American nations fighting for the top 2 qualifying spots. The top 2 teams will qualify for the USA Sevens (Las Vegas) and the Vancouver 7’s and the Hong Kong Sevens Tournament.    

 The USA, Canada, Argentina and Fiji sent their developmental teams. These nations are already in the World Seven’s Series. The South American nations had their official national seven sides participate. This tournament means everything for them.

            The USA development side had an ok tournament. First they lost badly to both Fiji and Argentina.  IF the USA is going to match these other countries in the senior tournament, they have to show progress in their development sides.  

Pool Play: The USA development side beat the host and Brazil in pool play. However they lost badly to power Argentina 0-38.

Knockout rounds  Quarter-finals: The  USA beat 3^rd seed Colombia from pool B 14-12.  Colombia did show some good fight to hang in there with the USA. The next round the USA had to play Pool A’s top team Fiji. Fiji’s development team  clobbered USA development team 45-0. The USA realizes their development program is way behind this tiny Pacific nation. The USA then was placed in the 3^rd place game against a highly motivated Chili team. Chili took ther revenge against USA and won 19-7.

Vina Del Mar Sevens (Chile)

Pool A	Pool B
Argentina	Fiji
USA	Chili
Uruguay	Colombia
Brazil	Canada

           

            DAY 1 RESULTS

POOL A
Argentina 28 – 7 Brazil
USA 12 – 14 Uruguay
Argentina 24 – 5 Uruguay
USA 12 – 5 Brazil
Argentina 26 – 0 USA
Uruguay 24 – 7 Brazil

POOL B
Fiji 33 – 0 Canada
Chile 28 – 0 Colombia
Fiji 36 – 5 Colombia
Chile 27 – 14 Canada
Colombia 12 – 36 Canada
Fiji 31 – 12 Chile

            The USA has placed 3^rd in Pool behind power Argentina and newly improving Uruguay. The USA will probably play 2^nd place Pool B nation, which will probably be Chile who had 2 wins and a loss to Fiji. This tournament is shaping up just like the Uruguay tournament. The USA will have to beat a highly motivated and full senior team chili in the knockout bracket. 

America Rugby Championship 2017

2017 Americas Rugby Championship              February  4^th 2017

Americas Rugby Championship

            The regions of North and South America wanted to promote the sport.  A new tournament was created called The Americas Rugby Championship. This tournament would mimic the highly successful European 6 Nations Championship (England, Ireland, France, Wales, Scotland and Italy). The Americas would now have their own tournament. The nations would play a home/away just like Europe’s Championship. 

      The first tournament with 6 nations was in 2016 and Argentina’s B team won.  These nations hope to capture national pride and have the sport grow. The next tournament in February 4^th and will be held the first 5 weekends right after the Super Bowl. The audience of the states would not be bothered with American football during this time.  

The Early tournaments

year	Champion	Runner -up	3rd
2009	Argentina Jaguars	BC Bears
2010	Argentina Jaguars	Canada Selects	USA Selects
2012	No tournament
2013	Argentina Jaguars	USA Selects	Canada A	Uruguay
2014	Argentina Jaguars	USA Selects
2015	No tournament
2016	Argentina XV	USA	Canada	Uruguay
2017	-

           

      

           The first tournaments started as a Canadian tournament with Canada placing 4 teams in the first 2 tournaments. The next tournament in 2012 had the Canadian Selects, Argentina Jaguars, Tonga A and USA Selects XV.  Argentina won easily.

            The 2013 tournament then only had the B team’s of Argentina, USA Selects, Canada A and Uruguay. This was the time USA started overtaking Canada in Rugby
.

The  2014 Tournament was similar to the 2013 tournament and the result was the same with Argentina winning and USA second.

The 2016 tournament expanded to 6 nations of Argentina Jaguars (B-Team), USA, Canada, Uruguay, Chile and Uruguay. Argentina again won with USA 2^nd, Canada 3^rd, Uruguay 4^th , Brazil 5^th and Chile 6^th .   As you can see these tournaments have been dominated by Argentina’s B team.  Argentina has won every tournament. The USA did tie Argentina in 2016 however lost to both Brazil and Uruguay.  This blew any change of overtaking Argentina’s B Team.

The USA progressing

Canada use to beat the USA in past tournaments all the time.  From 2006 to 2013 the 2 nations meet 12 times with Canada winning 11. However the last 4 matches have been won by the USA Eagles. We are now waiting for the USA to start gaining ground of the more powerful nations like Argentina, Australia, Ireland and England to name a few. Canada knows they will unlikely overtake USA in soccer and they do not want to be second fiddle to the USA in Rugby. They have been USA arch rival. The USA Eagles (USA top team) seems to have the edge just because of the resources (population, weather, economically and the plethora of college Teams now emerging). The USA is currently ranked 17^th with Canada right behind them at 18^th. This tournament will count in the standing as “test” matches that will affect ranking. Canada will host the USA this year’s tournament on February Burnbury, British Columbia.

Americas Championship A
38	Paraguay
43	Colombia
49	Trinidad & Tobago
52	Mexico
54	Guyana
60	Cayman Islands

Tier II for the Americas (promotion/regulation)

There is no promotion/regulation like in the international hockey tournaments but I think this possibility could create interest in the sport. I would like to see maybe Mexico and the other highly ranked Rugby nations of South America square off. The winner of this tournament could be promoted to the top tournament the next year. This would give nations incentive.