Eagles fly in to LA for US sevens as shortened game faces big challenges

The World Rugby HSBC Sevens Series arrives at Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles on Saturday with the health and some say the dignity of the shortened game under unusual strain.

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Thanks to the coronavirus, the showpiece Hong Kong Sevens and the Singapore event that follows have been postponed to October, after the Tokyo Olympics in July, should the Games survive the outbreak themselves.

On the circuit, meanwhile, a row about the format of individual events shows no sign of quietening down.

Under the auspices of World Rugby, men’s and women’s tournaments are now often staged together, as a way to “create more opportunities for the women’s game”. But unless three days are available that means there is not enough time to play the traditional three pool games, quarters, semis and final, plus ranking games for losers. The men’s teams have made their displeasure known. Speaking to the Guardian, so did USA coach Mike Friday.

“All 16 teams are totally 100% disappointed,” he said. “Not only is it depriving the passionate rugby supporter that comes to the stadiums, and putting them off coming to the stadiums, by the fact you don’t have the ebb and the flow that quarter-finals bring and you don’t get to see your team play as often as you’d want.

“Also, taking away that bottom-eight tournament on the second day deprives the developing nations of an opportunity to get battle scars in the coliseum, so to speak. That hurts sponsors of those nations and it hurts their unions.

“Of course we understand the broadcasting bit, getting that golden two hours right, but I think we have to recognise the essence of the game. We need a healthy balance on the integration with the women’s game, to make sure the game grows globally. We’re hoping World Rugby will get it right … we need further engagement with the stakeholders, the players and the coaches and those who are in it day to day.

“In Sydney and Hamilton the stadiums were empty and at times in Cape Town they were empty. We need to be very careful we don’t allow that to continue.”

In LA, in fact, the issue is on hiatus. The women’s Eagles won their event in Glendale, Colorado in October so at the home of the Chargers of the NFL and the Galaxy of Major League Soccer, Friday’s hard-running stars will play the regular format across Saturday and Sunday.

But Dan Lyle, the former Bath, Leicester and USA No8 leading LA for the sports and entertainment giant AEG, pointed to the strains of organising any sevens tournament when he described what that will mean: “NBC has to go off the air at 5pm PT on Sunday because they want to go to hockey. So that means our final has to be at 4.30, which means our first game of the day has to be at 8.15 in the morning.”

In a way, the punishing schedule conveys authenticity: sevens tournaments began 140 years ago in the Scottish borders and were played from dawn to dusk. The whole idea is to test fitness and resilience to breaking point, something which Friday talks of doing during the break enforced by the coronavirus.

“It means a massive shift and reshuffle but we have our plans,” he says. “We are going to use that period wisely and it will be a tough, dark one for the boys. We’ll probably get some competition to keep ticking over but we’ll keep them doing heavy resilience work to make them battle-ready for what’s coming down the track.”

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As Bob Dylan almost sang, other things have changed. Most immediately, the US tournament is back in LA after 16 years away, having been played in San Diego from 2007 to 2009 before moving to Las Vegas for a successful 10-year run, the last two producing American victories.

Off the record, players and coaches talk of Vegas having had problems in terms of facilities and infrastructure, including a field of narrow football dimensions and hotels devoted, obviously, to tourism rather than elite athletes. On the record, Steve Lewis of Rugby Wrap Up has written about the switch in organiser, from United World Sports to AEG.

“The proof will be in the pudding,” said Lyle, adding: “Sales are good, although I don’t know if it will match or exceed Vegas. There and in San Diego we found 50% of tickets were sold in the week of the event and a large proportion were walk-ups. In America we have not conditioned people to buy. Rugby doesn’t sell out, you know?”

All Blacks visits to Chicago aside that’s true, though Major League Rugby is now staging 15-a-side in 12 cities and awareness is growing, slowly.

Lyle talks of “getting communities actively involved” and “pushing the reset button for a new start, even given how successful Vegas was”. Most of the model, however, has been transferred: LA will host a huge club Invitational and beach and junior tournaments too, all as part of a “runway to the Olympics” given that in 2028, the Games will come to LA.

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On the field, last season was the Eagles men’s best: they went into the last tournament in Paris with a chance of the series title. As it happened Fiji, the Olympic champions, took gold again but second was enough to make the USA automatic qualifiers for Tokyo.

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Now, the Eagles are sixth on the ladder. Things are improving – they made the semis in Sydney – and Friday said “it’s been up and down but expected”. He was referring to decisions to allow key men Martin Iosefo and Ben Pinkelman to play the 15-a-side World Cup in Japan and the absence of playmaker Folau Niua, with Stephen Tomasin a world player of the year nominee, with serious injury.

“With that came the opportunity for others to step up, learn, get valuable game time and see for themselves how unforgiving the sevens circuit is,” Friday said. “And when you look at the games we’ve lost this season, a lot of them came down to little mistakes, predominantly by less-experienced guys.

“You have to learn the hard way. It makes us stronger and it allows us to try to develop the squad for 2020 and beyond.”

Carlin Isles and Perry Baker, both world famous finishers, are poised to make history: both have 199 Series tries and 997 points. Asked to name less well-known players to keep an eye on this weekend, Friday picks out Naima Fuala’au and Cody Melphy, young “tempo playmakers” out of California and Colorado vying to fill the hole left by Niua.

Friday confesses to having “very happy memories of Los Angeles”, because his England team won the last tournament there, in 2006.

“We smashed Fiji,” he said, laughing, “by 50-odd points in the final.”

In fact it was 38-5 but if his US team can get even close to repeating that feat, the rugby world will surely take notice.