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.

            

upcoming USA Rugby Events of 2017

USA Rugby Events 2017

           

Oct-2016	America Pacific Challenge (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada and USA -B teams) Uruguay hosted
All year 2017	World Seven series
February-2017	Americas Rugby Championship- round robin
October, 2017	Rugby League World Cup 2017 -New Zealand
Feb, 2018	Americas Rugby Championship
2018	Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 - USA host
February, 2019	Americas Rugby Championship-
Aug, 2019	Pan Am Games - Peru Seven
Sept-Nov, 2019	Rugby World Cup 2019- Japan

Well as you know there are 3 Rugby games; Rugby Sevens, Rugby League (13 per side) and the Rugby Union (15 per side). Rugby is big in college and the best teams are on the west coast.There was such a difference in quality that the better college rugby teams formed their own playoff. University of California has won an astonishing 26 Championships, not bestowed on them by the NCAA. They are the New Zealand of College Rugby. After college the sport is in its infancy. A new Pro Rugby league started this year in America, Rugby Seven was introduced in the last Olympics 2016 and the Rugby League has a small following on the East Coast. The USA national teams of Rugby are similar to the national soccer team. They both field competitive teams but are outmatched against the best nations in the sport. Similarly the USA Rugby is improving rapidly up the World ranking. We will see a World Cup in Rugby before we see it in soccer.  

USA Sevens (World Ranking #6)

            Well let’s start with the most popular one in the USA. This has to be the Rugby Sevens. The RIO Olympics 2016 just featured one of the big 2 tournaments in the Sevens (the other being the Rugby Sevens World Cup). The USA played very well but did not make the top knockout round. It was unfortunate. The lost the Argentina and eventual Champions Fiji, while beating the host Brazil twice and Spain which was good for 9th place out of 16. I believe the USA is about the 6^th best team in world according to their ranking.  The USA will again be one of the core teams in the Rugby Seven Series 2016-2017 and again will host one of the 10 legs in Vegas.  

        The big news for the USA national team and the sport is that the USA will host the next World Cup, the 2018 Rugby World Cup Seven in San Jose and San Francisco. The Sevens has become a big hit in the states since the national team can compete with the elite of the World very quickly.

USA Rugby Union - USA rank 16^th

            The last Rugby World Cup 2015 was held in London. This tournament proved that the USA is lagging well behind the best in the World in this sport. The USA went 0-4 in group play. They lost to South Africa, Scotland, Japan and Samoa. The next World Cup in 2019 in Japan and the USA Eagles have a lot of work to do to get ready for this one.

         The biggest news on this front is the USA just started a pro League called Pro Rugby that launched in April and concluded July in 2016. It is now being eyed by European leagues (Pro 12) as an expansion area for their league. The Pro Rugby owner doesn’t want to invade his potential profit and there is a war of words on what will be best for USA Rugby. Any attention is good. The USA however is way behind the top nations of New Zealand, Australia and S Africa as well as the top European teams. The Eagles are Ranked 16 and Canada 17 and Uruguay 18th. 

       The good news is the USA will now enter into a yearly tournament called the Americas Rugby Championship against Argentina B team called Argentina XV, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile. This tournament will put the Eagles in a very competitive tournament every year against their level of competition. The next tournament starts  in February.  .

USA Rugby (World Rank 13^th   League)

            There is a Rugby League that operates on the east coast on the USA with 14 teams. It has 3 divisions. The Philadelphia Flight has won 4 of the 6 championships and are your current Champion.

         The last Rugby League World Cup was 2013 which was the USA Tomahawks or Hawks enter their  first League World Cup. The were beat in the knockout round 62-0 against Australia. The did however beat Cook Islands and Wales,,,losing to Scotland in competitive games. The next World Cup is in 2017 in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The World Cup expanded from 5 teams in 1992 to 10 in 1995. There will be 14 nations competing in 2017. Lets hope the Hawks can close the gap here also. They only have til next year to get this together.

      A new tournament was just announced this year called the Rugby League Americas Cup 2017. The only nations to participate in 2016 will be the USA, Canada and Jamaica.The games will be played in Philadelphia and Toronto to determine the Americas Champion. These 3 nations  competed to qualify for the 2017 World Cup with the USA winning in 2015. The USA will represent the Americas in next years Rugby League World Cup.