With the NZI Wellington Sevens starting tomorrow here is a look at the USA’s recent success in Suva, their past performances in New Zealand, and what we can expect from the Eagles this weekend.

The USA’s record in the 2009/2010 IRB Series may not look that positive with only 2 wins from 10 matches, but it’s all part of the rebuilding phase for the ‘sleeping giant’ of world rugby.

As mentioned before USA 7s head coach Al Caravelli took control of this role in the 2006/2007 IRB Sevens season – selecting a small group of players that would eventually ensure that America became a core team on the circuit.

Caravelli’s goals included: achieving core sevens status (which happened in 2008/2009); developing a large base of American Sevens rugby players (including cross over athletes); to contract full-time Sevens players (still in negotiations); and always to improve on past performances.

Rugby Sevens is all about consistency, weather it be in team availability and selection or playing style and structures. It took Caravelli three seasons to develop a core group of players, nurturing a team chemistry which resulted in some amazing results during that period.

Looking solely at America’s past Wellington campaign’s we have the 2006/2007 tournament in which a very young and inexperienced team led every match (except against Fiji) until the final minute or so, eventually losing out in these high-pressure situations. Experience counts for a lot – and this hard lesson of losing 5 games in a row would pave the way for better performances the following year.

IRB NZI Wellington Sevens 2006/2007 results:
USA 14 France 17
USA 0 Fiji 43
USA 21 Portugal 26
USA 14 Australia 33 (Bowl quarterfinal)
USA 19 Scotland 26 (Shield semi final)

The next tournament in New Zealand during 2007/2008 started off with a famous 17-7 win over Argentina. Tonga – however - surprised everyone in Wellington by making the Cup semi finals and just losing out against Samoa by 3 points. For the USA, it was a tied match against Scotland that saw them narrowly lose out on a Cup quarterfinal spot. The team remained consistent and saw off rivals Canada, capturing a Shield trophy with a last second Todd Clever penalty try! (thanks to a great Hollywood dive from the Californian)

IRB NZI Wellington Sevens 2007/2008 results:
USA 17 Argentina 7
USA 7 Scotland 7
USA 7 Tonga 38
USA 12 France 17 (Bowl quarterfinal)
USA 19 Canada 7 (Shield semi final)
USA 22 Kenya 17 (Shield final)

Last year’s NZI sevens campaign was the best performance by an American team in recent years with a remarkable 15-10 victory over Fiji. With two full years of lessons learnt – Caravelli’s side lost out in a thriller against Samoa – but struck back destroying the Cook Islands to make the Cup quarterfinals!
Argentina proved too strong on Day 2 and would go on to win the IRB San Diego Sevens tournament a week later. The USA gained momentum and made history on home soil by reaching the Cup semi finals in San Diego. Three years of extremely dedicated work and progress had culminated in this fine display by the Americans.

IRB NZI Wellington Sevens 2008/2009 results:
USA 15 Fiji 10
USA 17 Samoa 26
USA 41 Cook Islands 0
USA 12 Argentina 24 (Cup quarterfinal)
USA 0 SA 22 (Plate semi final)

The current breed

Back to the present. Team USA have enjoyed two week’s preparation in Fiji ahead of this weekend’s tournament, instead of the usual camp at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in San Diego. Caravelli was able to take 15 players to participate in the highly competitive Suva Sevens, which featured IRB sides representing New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Canada and Fiji.

In many ways the USA 7s side is in a rebuilding phase. Several talented players are not in the squad – some due to professional 15s contracts (Chris Wyles, Taku Ngwenya, Todd Clever), others injured (Jone Naqica), retired or unavailable (James Gillenwater). Caravelli does not want to take a step backwards, and with the added expectations of success, this will be a very interesting year.

The Fiji undertaking was a great option and better prepared the younger and inexperienced members of the squad for the level of rugby they would face in Wellington.

Caravelli rotated his squad throughout every match at the Suva Sevens – regardless of the scoreboard. The goal was to give players game time in this environment and to build team chemistry. It’s no secret in sevens that the more a team plays together in tournaments, the better they become.

In fact the USA Cougars (A core IRB 7s side can not use their national name in a non-IRB tournament) performed extremely well defeating the Western Force, Fijian Army and the Wardens. The return of captain Kevin Swiryn was a huge boost to the side, as are experienced players Nese Malifa, Matt Hawkins, Mark Bokhoven, Shalom Suniula and Paul Emerick. New comer Nick Edwards has shown his potential in the opening rounds scoring 8 tries – putting him near the top 10 try scorers this season.

Many aspects were worked on in Fiji, with the side still looking to improve on depth on attack and keeping their defensive alignment.

Player identification is key to USA’s success with Al Caravelli scouting all 50 states for potential future sevens stars. One recent addition to the squad included Bennie Brazell – an American football wide receiver who played for the Cincinnati Bengals. Brazell was also a finalist in the 400m hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games.

He is an amazing athlete who can run the 100m in just over 10 seconds. Although he has no previous rugby experience (he spent 4 days training with USA Rugby’s Strength and Conditioning coach Dave Williams in Colorado) ahead of the Fiji tour, Brazell picked up the game extremely quickly. If he sticks with the sport, he will surely make the squad in the near future, sending a welcome message to all ex-football players and Olympians to try rugby sevens.

This weekend the USA has been placed in a very tough pool against England, Kenya and Tonga. Even though the USA has beaten all three of these sides before, consistency will again be the key word here as they face three massive challenges. Day 1 is of course the most important as winning two matches sees you into the Cup quarter-finals. This is the goal for the USA, who will be taking one match at a time, focusing on the small things letting the results take care of themselves.

In preparation this week the USA have scrimmaged against Series log leaders New Zealand. They have also had a few pool hydro sessions along with yoga to ensure the players are well recovered by Friday’s kickoff. Plenty of video analysis – on the competition – as well as on themselves has taken place this week.

The day before the tournament will see the well-attended tournament street parade in which each team boards a massive float proudly displaying their countries flag. The USA will then relax to the team hotel with the jersey presentation following in the evening.

The USA schedule for Day 1:

13:44 UNITED STATES vs. ENGLAND
17:02 UNITED STATES vs. KENYA
19:14 UNITED STATES vs. TONGA

USA squad: Marco Barnard (Kutztown University), Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians), Nick Edwards (New York Athletic Club), Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore), Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore), Nese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Leonard Peters (Aspen), Mile Pulu (San Francisco Golden Gate), Shalom Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (Old Puget Sound Beach) *Captain, Zack Test (Loughborough Students)