For rugby in America, rightly thinking big after the announcement of a 15-a-side game against Australia and a Sevens World Cup in San Francisco in 2018, a slot at the Games is a must

USA take London Sevens rugby title with historic final victory over Australia Read more

What does the USA’s victory in the London Sevens mean for rugby in America? Well, what it doesn’t mean is that the Eagles have a place at the Olympic Games next year.

Mike Friday’s team were superb at Twickenham on Saturday and Sunday, particularly in putting more than 40 points past England and Australia in the semi-finals and final of the first ever USA win on the World Series circuit.

Thanks to their fourth place on the ladder for the season, England booked a place in Brazil for Great Britain. In pool play, the Eagles beat South Africa, the other Olympic qualifier with Fiji and New Zealand.

Twelve teams, including hosts and rugby minnows Brazil, will contest the Olympic sevens title. On the world circuit the USA, led by the diminutive Anglo-American playmaker Madison Hughes, finished a best-ever sixth on the table. That, however, was not enough. Qualification will now be decided regionally.

In London, the Eagles had power, pace and organisation. Perhaps for the first time since Friday took the reins, they cut out almost all mistakes and took almost all their chances.

Carlin Isles shone, of course, a rugby talent hugely advanced from the raw sprinter who became a YouTube star two years ago. But less-heralded players also did well, like the two other football crossovers, Maka Unufe and the leggy Perry Baker. The long-haired, hard-charging hard-hitters, Danny Barrett and Garrett Bender, were terrific. And they did it all without the prolific Zack Test, who was injured. His replacement, the Saracens back-up centre Thretton Palamo, did wonders.

The team’s quarter-final result, however, may bear closest scrutiny, certainly by coaches as experienced and hard to kid as Friday, Chris Brown and the former England hooker Phil Greening. In the first game of day two, the US beat Canada by a comfortable enough but comparatively measly 29-10.



Next month, in Cary, North Carolina, barring hugely unlikely upsets from the likes of Bermuda or the Caymans, the USA and Canada will meet again in the final of the Nacra Sevens, the North America and Caribbean qualifying event for Rio. Only the winner will book a place in Brazil.

True, the loser will have another chance to qualify, in a repechage event next year. But there will lurk some dangerous teams: probably Samoa and Tonga, possibly even Australia.

So the final of the Nacra Sevens, on Sunday 14 June, will be some of the most important minutes for rugby in the United States – ever. It will be, to borrow with regret the language of soccer, squeaky bum time. And as even the occasional watcher of sevens knows, anything can happen in sevens.

In the women’s tournament in London, at the Stoop on Saturday, New Zealand took a 37-match winning run into a game against Spain. They lost. (The USA women are fourth on their table with one event to go, poised with Canada to qualify automatically). In the recent men’s tournament in Hong Kong, the almost equally mighty New Zealanders drew with Portugal. Subsequently in Tokyo, the Sevens All Blacks were beaten … by Canada.

A game of sevens lasts for just 14 minutes (or, in a tournament final, 20). It can be won and lost on the bounce of a ball, a slip of a tackle, a trip or a slip on the turf. The teams on the World Series are professional and generally well matched. The US have had a hold on Canada this season – but in Glasgow, in pool play, the Canadians handed them their own, 40-0.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carlin Isles uses his speed to score twice against England at Twickenham.

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Canada are a strong team, more inconsistent than the US but consistently capable of pulling off a result. They would of course grace the Games in Brazil.

Yet for men’s rugby in America, rightly thinking big after the announcement of a 15-a-side game against Australia at Soldier Field in September and a Sevens World Cup in San Francisco in 2018, a slot at the Games is a must. If only so that old fact about the USA being the reigning Olympic champions, thanks to a bunch of students in Paris in 1924, can be trotted out at the actual Games themselves.

After London, with Zack Test to come back and with the squad’s work at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista continuing, the Eagles must be favourites to beat Canada and make it to the Games. Their win in London was wonderful news for the world game.

But this is sevens. Those 20 minutes in North Carolina are going to be murder on everyone’s nerves.