The USA try machine on switching from football, this weekend’s London Sevens, Olympic and golfing dreams and being cordial to Canadians despite everything

Zack Test: 'When it comes to the stuff on the pitch, no opponent's your friend'

Morning, Zack. Afternoon, Small Talk.

[Zac, who is from California, is in London on a train. Small Talk, who is from Leeds, is in New York in an office, bellowing at Skype. Globalisation and its discontents: discuss.]



You’re an established threat for the USA at the London Sevens this weekend, what with having scored more than 100 tries in more than 50 tournaments since 2009. What should we look out for from the other Eagles at Twickenham? Well, Carlin [Isles, interviewed by the Guardian here] and Perry [Baker, ditto here], they’re our speedsters, we call them our racehorses. They’ve got world-class speed and if you give them a sniff they’re round the corner and they’re gone. Then Madison Hughes is our captain and playmaker, and he’s in the middle with Folau Niua and they just make the magic happen.

Then you have Danny Barrett in the middle [see here for a profile from US site Rugby Today, entitled “An American Badass”] and he’s huge, just a beast. He’ll run you over and put the big hits in. And then we call him the freak athlete, Maka Unufe. He can run like the wind, he can make you miss with his feet and he can put you on the floor if you try it.

Blimey – it sounds like the Eagles have the full complement. We have a whole bunch of different weapons in our arsenal, yeah. We can beat you in different ways.

Like a few others in this Eagles squad, you have a background in American football. How did you come to rugby? I started playing rugby as a freshman in high school – my older sister’s friend played on a team near me. They knew I was a good football player so they dragged me out and told me to play. I went out, and I got to hit somebody. I got to make somebody benched, you know. It was kind of like football, though, so I got to work on things that way too.

You don’t really get to hit anyone as a wide receiver. Was that a bonus? Yeah. My dad played club rugby in California before I was born, though, so I knew about it. We’d watch it growing up.

You’re rated as one of the best catchers and retrievers of kick-offs and restarts there is. How much of that is down to your past as a wide receiver? It’s very similar. I worked in high school and college [Oregon] on going up and catching a ball, you know, flying through the air at different speeds, angles and heights. Kick-offs are very similar in sevens – it’s you against one other guy. How you position your body in the air, how you position your hands under the ball and get into that slot: it’s similar.

You’ve said that when you got your first sevens start for the US, in Hong Kong in 2009, you were so nervous you forgot how to play rugby. Do you still suffer from nerves? Well, I mean… you don’t really call it “nerves”. We call it “beating the fear”. You turn it – that adrenaline rush. There’s always nerves in big games, but it’s not panic. You just want to make the big hits and the big runs and go out and win for your team.

You’ve played more than 50 tournaments and scored more than 100 tries. Can you remember any favourites? [Pause] [crackle] [possible tannoy announcement about the 2.43 to Slough] …Ah, you cut out for like 10 seconds there. Can you say it again?

[Small Talk silently curses the gods and/or the game but overwhelmed Guardian US network, then says it again, which with the echo makes three times]. Ooh. Um… nah, I can’t really. They all kind of blend together, and it’s more about scoring the try for the team than me scoring the try, you know?



Right. But I guess the one that was huge was my 100th try. It was the most recent, a milestone kind of thing.

Let’s take this in the inevitable direction. That 100th try was against Canada, was it not? It was, yes.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zack Test scores a hat-trick against Canada in Hong Kong.

And the Canadians are the Eagles’ big rivals for qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016, are they not? [With caution] …Right.

So will the US beat them and get there? Mike Friday, our coach, says that if we play like the outfit we can be, we can beat anyone in the world. I’m confident that if we play the way we want to play, we can beat Canada – and we can beat New Zealand, we can beat South Africa, we can beat Fiji [all three of whom have qualified for Rio]. It’s not just about beating Canada – it’s about beating the top sides in the world consistently to be a medal contender.

Indeed. But presuming final Olympic qualification – well, not final, because there’s one of those repechage tournaments rugby likes so much as a last chance, but still – does come down to 14 or 20 minutes at the Nacra 7s in North Carolina in June, can you think of a bigger 20 minutes in your life? [Pause, indicating half of answer lost to mists of time] … well, I think we can use that pressure, to put together a huge 20 minutes of sevens rugby for not only our team but our nation.

Do you have any Canadian friends? Oh, I mean this is my seventh season on the circuit and I’ve been playing the Canadian guys every year. We always say hi and catch up. We’ll have a coffee, that kind of thing. But yes, there is still that rivalry between us, the North American thing. You could say I’m friends with them, yeah. But when it comes to the stuff on the pitch, nobody’s your friend.

America hasn’t invaded Canada – at least properly – in 200 years. If they take the Eagles’ Olympic place, will it be time for another go? [Pause]… Uh…

Basically, no? Yeah. No.

Moving on. Small Talk believes you’re a very good golfer. Yup, that’s true.

And you’ve mentioned that one day you’d love to have a crack at the PGA Tour. Absolutely. Any athlete wants to be competitive at the highest level and I think if I took the time I’ve taken with rugby to tune my golf game, I could have a crack at the tour. But right now rugby’s my dream and I hope I can play till I’m 30 or 35 – and then have a look at golf, maybe. Right now it’s a fun hobby.

So if it’s a hobby, are you off scratch or do you have a handicap? Right now I’m off three or four.

So that’s pretty good, then. I guess so.

Right, the–

[Small Talk begins question about whether Tiger Woods will ever win another major, because the important things, only to realise he has run out of time. This is probably for the best, given the drivel Small Talk had written down in his Guardian-issue notebook, so Small Talk chooses to finish on the traditional note.]

OK. Last question, which we ask everyone. Who wins a fight: lion or tiger? Say that one more time?

[Small Talk does so.]

Ah… really… I don’t know.

[Small Talk channels the Black Knight]. All right, we’ll call it a draw. Yeah, it’s a draw. But the gorilla wins overall.

Great answer. Always bet on the gorilla.

Bye, Zack. Bye, Small Talk.