USA Rugby Seven starts off with a bang.

Last year the USA placed dead last in Dubai. This year they reached the final game. The year before in 2016 they didnt make the Cup knockout rounds of the top 8 nations. This effected their final standing which is when the Champion for the year is declared. The USA were only 5 points behind England and 6 points behind Australia in last years 2017-2018 Rugby World Seven Series. 

This year they wanted start strong and they did. In the knockout round they beat last years runner up and olympic Champion Fiji. They then gutted out a hard fought win against Australia 22-17.

They faced down New Zealand and lost 21-5. However they do take home 19 points and sit in second place. I know it is early however this is the best USA has even done in Dubai. This is one series out of 10 which concludes in Paris

Next location is South Africa next weekend

USA Rugby year in Review

USA Rugby year in Review 2018

USA Eagles had an awesome year in 2018. They won the Americas Rugby Championship for the
second year in a row. They also had more convincing wins that the previous year. This was the first
year they went undefeated in this tournament. This was a very good step forward, seperating themselves from
the rest of the Americas. Hopefully we will see Argentinas top team if the USA keep winning.

Major League Rugby: This League may be more important than the American Rugby

Championship. The first year was 2018 and it was a success. Attendance is only about 2,000 per

game however it provides a chance for players to play professionally in the USA. It also provided a competition for
half the year to keep the top players or even developing players a place to play in USA,

USA World Seven Series : They also had a very good year. They placed 6th in the World Rugby

Seven Series. They were never in the top 6 in the first 15 years of this tournament. They have placed

6th in 3 of the last 4 years and placed 5th place in 2017. They are competing and beating the top teams

in this sport. New Zealand and Fiji still remain the nations to beat here.

USA Sevens World Cup 2018. This tournament was hosted in the USA San Francisco and was a

huge success. Both in attendance, interest and the results. They achieved their  highest ever Rugby

Sevens World Cup result and placed 6th. They lost in the quarterfinals to England in Extra Added time.

The good thing is most people, including myself though we had a legitimate shot at winning this

tournament. This is a huge adjustment attitude in this sport and it is nice we can compete with the top

teams in the world.

USA Eagles Test Matches:

The USA Eagles have won 8 test matches in a row. They also beat a Tier 1 nation, Scotland for
the first time. They have also move up the ranking in the last 10 years. From the 20th spot in 2008 to
the 13th spot in 2018. The 13th ranking is the highest ranking the USA has ever achieved. 2018 has
been the best year for USA Rugby ever with Gary Gold as their head coach.

Going forward:

• The USA first has the Americas Rugby Championship to defend
• Then there is the Rugby Seven World Series that Starts in December this year and run the first half of 2019.
• We also want to keep an eye on Major League Rugby. There will be to 2 more teams and a new Rugby Stadium
• in Houston. 2020 3 more Rugby teams in Boston, Atlanta and Washington D.C. Just as Major League Soccer
• benefited soccer in this nation, Rugby should do the same.
• The USA Eagles have the 2019 World Cup Japan coming up.

USA trying to gain Tier 1 status win latest victory

First off. Who are the Tier 1 nations.  

Well - the Six Nations Championship teams are all
tier 1. So England, France, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Italy. Then the 4 nations from the
Rugby Championship (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina). That’s about it,

Tier II:

Fiji, Japan, Tonga and Georgia all currently out rank Tier 1 Italy. Georgia has been lobbying
to replace Italy in the Six nations Championship, however Italy beat Japan 25-22 in June
2018 and Georgia 28-17 in Florence Nov 2018. Italy has never lost to Georgia. So how can Georgia
claim to take Italys place in the Six Nations or even this "Tier I" status.
So i guess we will see Italy take their place back in the top 10 soon.

Every nation are trying to catch there so called Tier 1 nations.

Fiji is the top nation in the Pacific Nations Cup. Winning the battle of the Pacific nations time
and again. They have a dominant Rugby 7 team but are vying, just like the other Tier 2
nations to be considered for Tier 1. To do this these teams have to beat Tier 1 sides in
meaningful Test match games or at next years Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Fiji, Japan, Georgia Tonga, Samoa and the USA are all trying to catch the elusive status of
Tier 1 nation.

.

Where does the USA stands:

The USA are probing the top 10. They have won their last 9 games including a victory against Tier 1
Scotland. I would put them exactly where they are. A solid Tier 2. They ony beat Samoa with
a last second kick, They just played and beat #16th ranked Samoa on neutral site (France).
Next up
for the USA Eagles will be an away game against #17 ranked Romania. Away games are
much harder. After that they play #2 ranked Ireland in Ireland. To be considered for Teir 1 you
have to beat them. USA Eagles are making tremendous strides howver beating Teir 1
consistently---is required.

For now lets enjoy the 9 game win streak and the upcoming Test match against another Tier 2 nations
Romania trying to prove themselves.

USA 22-59 Mãori All Blacks

  The USA win streak is over. The USA Eagles (Rugby name) got swamped by the Maori All Blacks.
Gary Gold knew the storm was coming. The All Blacks were to clinical for this emerging country.

I sometimes think, the USA have the larger population, more resources and better facilities so they should eventually win. Rugby nations like the south Pacific nations of  New Zealand, Fiji, Somoa and even Tonga are fundamentally sounder that the USA Eagles....why ...well they have been playing their whole life and play all the time.

The USA is still emerging. Major League Rugby is a good step. This league should increase the interest of the college "farm system" so players, if they are any good could have something to play for to earn a pay check.

Yes we are emerging.
Next up for the USA Eagles is Romania. Romania is only ranked 2 spots behind the USA. The game will be played in Capital of Romania, Budapest. Romania, just lie the USA are trying to climb in the rankings.This game will be an official test match so the USA can get their full complement of players.

USA flops are the Americas Pacific Challenge

The first year the USA Selects placed 5th, the next year the improved to 2nd place. This year they didn't even win a game. They lost to the Pacific nation of Tonga A, then they lost 18-33 to the host. They then went on and got blow out by Argentina XV 15:55. I  was hoping to see hte USA dept improve here.

We had the first year of Major League Rugby. We had the USA full national team repeat as champions in the Americas Championship- winning all their games.

Then earlier this year the USA selects- which is like the junior team, lost the qualification home/away series against their rivals Canada. Yes that right, Canada juniors beat out the USA Selects to participate in the U-20 World Rugby Trophy tournament - That is the Tier 2 tournament of 8 nations trying to improve in Rugby.

The USA Selects have a lot of work to do for next year to start the process all over again.

Next up will be the November Test matches, and they all look challenging.

USA Selects 30-39 Tonga A Rugby

The USA Selcts lost 30-39 to Tonga A. I see this as an improvement. The first year USa lost 12-62 to Fiji. The next year 2017 they played Somoa and lost 26-48. (22 point  difference). This year the USA selects lead late in the game and lost 30-39 to Tonga. (9 point difference)

   Tonga and Somoa are about equal sides. So this ---so far looks like USA is slowely  but consistently closing the gab. We will see just how far they have come with Argintina and Canada still remaining. 

Why the USA selects might to do well in the American Pacific Challenge

The USA is bringing a young and experienced mix of players to the American Pacific Challenge in Uruguay. There are 27 players who will make the trak to South America. There will be 12 players already capped from the full national team, 10 have experience from the successful 2017 Pacific Americas challenge, and 3 your stars trying to crack the starting 15 that are 1st team All American.


The USA players play on many different teams and Major League Rugby will be well represented. Finally USA has a league to lean of to derive their players from.

Americas Pacific Challenge _Uruguay

American Pacific Challenge

Oct 6th -14th 

Venue: 14,000 capacity stadium Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo.

        



The Americas Pacific Challenge is a great tournament to play potential prospect for their national teams.  The USA's potential national team players are called the USA Selects. This year's tournament sees reigning champions Argentina XV compete alongside Canada A, Samoa A, Tonga A, Uruguay A and USA Selects. The is the 3rd tournament of these nations. I always want to know how the USA "stacks" up against other nations. The first year the USA placed 5th, last year they placed 2nd. This seems like great improvement but beware of this record....

   This brief 3 game competition it is who you play as opposed to your record. Last year the USA Selects didn't have to play the powerful Argentina Side. They beat Canada and Uruguay. They came away with a 2-1 record however Samoa placed 4th and was clearly the better team. You see Samoa pounded the USA 48-26 last year. 

  This year USA Selects will play all the teams in Group A. Argentina XV just missed beating the full USA national team this year in the Americas Championship and the game was home for the USA team. Now your B team has to travel to South America and play this same team looking for payback. I am hoping the USA Selects can close the talent difference with Argentina. 

   If the USA Select can finally start beating the Pacific nations then the gap will be closing. This year the USA Selects get a crack at Tonga A them on Oct 6th. This game is where we see if the talent and technical gap has been closed. The next game is against Uruguay XV Oct 10. Uruguay are trying to close the gap on USA and this is the game for them to show improvement in front of their home fans. This has been the easiest game for the USA. The last game is Oct 14th against the top team in the tournament Argentina XV. 



Group A
Argentina XV
Tonga A
Uruguay A

Group B
Somoa A
USA Selects
Canada A

I am looking forward to this tournament because the USA is on a huge upward movement in Rugby. Their USA U-20 team lost in the qualifiers to Canada and missed out on the World Rugby U-20 Trophy in Romania this year.  This was hugely unfortunate for the development of USA Rugby. I love tournaments especially one where i can track my national team. The USA "potential" stars were not able to play or develop their young stars in the U-20 Trophy this year. 


There are only 3 yearly tournaments to see the USA develop their nation Rugby team. The Americas Championship which the beginning of each year and runs 6 weeks, The U-20 Trophy and this The Americas Pacific Challenge. 

2018 World Rugby Under 20 Trophy- Romanis

This years tournament was played in Romania. There are only 8 nations that participate. I wish Rugby would expand this tournament to 16 teams. Why...well The USA didnt qualify. They missed for 2 years running. The have to qualify against Canada every year. THE USA u-20 failed to qualify for the 2017 and 2018 tournament 2 years running.

Here I am thinking if the USA qualified they could have a change to win and get promoted. Well, if Canada, the team that beat the USA didnt win a game at all. would the USA.

That right, Canada lost every group game. They would up playing the host Romania for final seeding. They did beat Romania but remember Romania didnt have to qualify. This tournament was a gift to Romania.

Well, Even after the USA U-20 failed to qualify for the last 2 tournaments i have faith in USA Rugby. I think USA Rugby is getting more organized each year. This years all American team beat a professional MLR team Glendale Raptors. That right, this young team beat a pro team. Just so you know, the Raptors use this game as an exhibition and didnt use all of their top players. The good news is, once the All American were in camp and started to understnad each other their game started to florish. I wish the camp as befor the qualification with Canana.

Oh will. The next big game will be next June 2019 against our Arch Rival in Rugby (Canada). I do not understand how the USA lost so badly the first game 60-22 on home soil to Canada. I just have to believe the USA was just now ready to match Canada intensity and not prepared.

2018 World Rugby Under 20 World Championship

2018 World Rugby U-20 Championship:

 

    This is the top tournament for the U-20 Nations. The top 12 nations participate. The USA has only participated in 1 Top U-20 World Championship. This years tournament was held in France and the home side took advantage of home soil and beat rivals England in the Final. There have been 11 finals and New Zealand has won 6 of them. England had been to the Final 9 times winning 3 of them. So it was good to see another nation France win their first Championship. 

Japan was bounced from the top tournament ad will participate in the Trophy Tournamnet next year. 

 

U-20 Rugby Qualification USA v Canada

6/11/18

It has been a while since I last posted about USA Rugby. Lets do a little recap so we are all up to speed.

USA Rugby (15 per side) has won the American Rugby Championship 2 years in a row. The squeeked by Argentina B side and the Game was on the Eagles home soil. (Stub Hub Center). The USA Rugby Eagles also just started their Summer test matches. The Eagles are presently ranked   15th and looking to climb higher. Their first teat match was against the ruggard 19th ranked Russian Bears. The game was a blow out by the Eagles 62-13. Their next match is against a so called Tier 1 and 6th ranked Scotland. We will see just how far the Eagles have improved next week.

Seven Series
     The UA Seven series just finished the 2017-18 World Seven series. The again placed in 6th place out of the 15 core teams. The last 3 years the Eagles have climber to this ranking. Every other nation are slowely gaining on the 3 powers in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Figi is an excellent example.

U-20 World Rugby Under 20 Trophy  Qualification

    The Top tournament only has 12 nations. The Tier 2 U20 Championship has 8 participants. USA battles Canada for the America Rugby North spot. Canada beat the USa last year to play in the Tier 2 Tournamnet. The USA U20 are looking for revenge and beat Canada. There is a two game series and the aggregate point winner advances to the U20 Trouphy Championship. The ganes will be played the next 2 Saturdays. This is the biggest game fr

American Rugby Championship 2018-week 4

American Rugby Championship

Week 4

USA 43- Brazil 16

I just watched the USA Eagles dominate the Brazilian national team in Brazil. All I could think as i

watched the bigger faster more talented USA team run over the overmatched Brazil team was……

...now the fans of Brazil know how USA fans feel when our soccer team meet on the pitch.

The USA Eagles pounded Brazil. 43-16 and now have the inside track for their second American

Rugby Championship. The USA still need a lot of work to beat the nations ranked above them but

this is a good tournament to test your skills, challenge your team and gain confidence.

The USA sit atop the ARC with 19 points and have the inside track for the second consecutive

ARC. They were lucky to play Argentina XV at home and squeaked out that important victory.

The next game for all the marbles is against Uruguay in Uruguay. The last time USA played

in Uruguay they lost 25-29. USA has a 13-2-1 record against Uruguay however Uruguay

Rugby is just about USA’s equal with USA ranked 17th and Uruguay 18th however they are

tied with points. The ARC will be decided with this game.

Argentina XV 40 - Canada 15

Make no mistake Argentina is the best team in the Americas. They send their B team for
development to the ARC. This development team is on par with USA and Uruguay’s top team.
This team just whipped Canada 40-15 and they also have a chance to capture the ARC.
Next up for Argentina is Brazil so this will be an easy win. I also see them scoring 4 tries to
gain the extra point. The win and the points will give Argentina 20 points. That is one point
more that the USA ---if the USA loses to Uruguay which i see as a toss up game at this point.

The USA would have to lose with in 7 point to Uruguay and hope to capture the tournament
 through the back door.

Uruguay 67- Chile 15

Uruguay are starting to assert themselves near the end of the tournament. They just pounded
Chile badly 67-15 which is the highest point in the tournament.  They only have one loss to the
powerful Argentina team. The have the USA next and they are playing at home. Uruguay chance
of winning they beat the USA for 4 points and score more that 4 tries for the extra point which would
give them 19 points.

They would also need Brazil to do them a favor against Argentina