It is perfectly possible that the USA men’s and women’s sevens teams will bring home two world titles this weekend, when the Rugby World Cup Sevens is played in San Francisco.
Both are top-six teams in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The men have the World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, the extraordinary Perry Baker. Both teams will run out of an expectant home crowd at AT&T Park, home of baseball’s Giants. USA Rugby says that with walk-ups over the three-day weekend, attendance is likely to exceed 100,000.
But the Americans and their competitors will also be at the mercy of the World Cup’s new format, which presents an extraordinary challenge.
Sevens rugby is played on a full-scale field over two seven-minute halves. The emphasis is on speed, skill and remarkable standards of fitness. Between evenly matched sides, the bounce of an odd-shaped ball, a missed tackle or a random slip often decides who wins. Usually, tournaments have pool stages in which teams play mini-leagues and the top two go through, allowing for recovery from misfortune.
Not this time. From the moment Fiji and Spain kick-off the women’s event on Friday morning, losers will be out with only placings to play for.
Ross Young, interim chief executive of USA Rugby, told the Guardian: “The tournament structure was really an outcome based on strategic discussions with World Rugby about the most effective way to have a fully integrated men’s and women’s events on even terms, with all teams playing in the ‘big stage’ at the main venue.”
In other words, once plans to play women’s games at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, a smaller Major League Soccer venue, were dropped so as – correctly – to treat all teams equally, a pool format became unwieldy. It’s a knockout.
In an interview before she withdrew from the World Cup with injury – a serious blow to the US women – the scrum-half Alev Kelter said the Eagles were surprised by the format change. But, she added, under coach Richie Walker the squad simply adjusted their preparation, including “work with sports psychologists on how to stay in the present”.
“In sevens,” she said, “seconds count. Even more so, this tournament. Everyone’s going to throw the kitchen sink from the start. I’m excited for it.”
With the rest of the world, Kelter will be able to watch 84 matches in all. The line-up features the usual suspects – Olympic champions Australia and Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand, England and France – and fascinating outsiders from Uganda in the men’s event to Papua New Guinea in the women’s. The US women first face China, a game they should win but will not of course take lightly. Get through it and it’s South Africa or Russia on Friday night.
There are 16 teams in the women’s event but 24 in the men’s, so in the latter an eliminator round will come first. The Americans are one of eight seeds spared that trial and will be the last team to take the field on day one, against Zimbabwe or, most likely, Wales. The Welsh won the World Cup in 2009. If the Eagles beat them another former champion, England, could well be next on Saturday. World Cups are not supposed to be easy.
Announcing his squad, Mike Friday, the Eagles’ English coach, said: “If we are fizzing, confident and on point come match day, we will be contenders in this unforgiving format.”
Friday’s team are the subject of a two-part documentary, premiered on NBC Sports Network on Thursday, about their journey to the World Cup. The squad includes world stars: Baker, his fellow crossover flier Carlin Isles, Danny Barrett, a Bay Area-raised blaster in the three-man scrum. Asked to pick American women to watch on the same grand stage, Kelter mentioned among others Naya Tapper, who ran track at college and now runs in tries from the wing, and fly-half Lauren Doyle.
All such players are well aware of their role in attempts to establish rugby union in the mainstream of American sporting culture, a journey on which a World Cup by San Francisco Bay is a major staging post.
In The Pioneers, men’s captain Madison Hughes speaks of dreaming “of winning that World Cup and doing it in front of our home fans and getting a lot of people in America to say, ‘Hey how about these rugby sevens guys?’”
Kelter, meanwhile, spoke glowingly of what both American squads and many American fans will bring to the tournament, of the spirit of a game still fed by its strong roots in colleges, where men and women alike fall hard for its tight-knit, tribal nature.
“This is a sport that’s trying to break those barriers of gender equality,” she said, “and to break those barriers of things that we’re fighting for in America.” In San Francisco, she said, “if Americans can see strong women playing this tough sport, if they can see Perry Baker, Carlin Isles, sprinting down the sideline for the men, really testing the limits of the game, I think it’s something Americans can really get behind.
“They just need to see it.”
What you need to know
Where?
The Rugby World Cup Sevens will be played at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, from Friday to Saturday. The stadium holds 42,000 and is dramatically placed: fans in the top tiers can see the Golden Gate Bridge, everyone can see the Bay Bridge.
Who?
There are 24 men’s teams and 16 women’s, drawn from the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and outside qualifiers.
How?
The women will play from Friday to Saturday, a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. Play-offs between losers in each round will decided placings. In the men’s event, 16 teams will play an eliminator round before the top seeds enter.
When?
On Friday, kick-off is at 10am local time (1pm US eastern, 6pm UK), when Fiji’s women play Spain. England face Ireland at 12.12pm (3.12pm/8.12pm) and the USA enter at 12.34pm (3.34pm/8.34pm), against China. Quarter-finals and play-offs are on Saturday evening.
The first men’s game is Kenya v Tonga at 1.01pm (4.01pm/9.01pm) on Friday. If Wales beat Zimbabwe at 2.07pm (5.07pm/10.07pm) they will close the first day against the USA at 9.47pm (12.47am/5.47am). Ireland must beat Chile (3.35pm/11.35pm) to face South Africa (9.15pm/5.15am), Scotland will play Kenya or Tonga at 7.03pm (10.03pm/3.03am) and England take on Samoa or Uganda at 8.09pm (1.09am/4.09am). The women’s final is on Saturday night, the men’s on Sunday.
Watch?
TV coverage is through ITV and S4C in the UK, NBC in the US, Fox in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand.
