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In-Depth

On-field successes raise hopes of Team USA squads

World Rugby divides its member nations into three tiers, and though there are no firm definitions of what makes one country Tier 1 and another Tier 2 or Tier 3 — and no specific way to move up or down — the sport’s governing body knows what decades of results suggest: The United States is not in Tier 1. To go from Tier 2 to the sport’s upper echelon, where longtime powers like England, New Zealand and South Africa reside, is a generational task, but Team USA is starting to build a case that it can do just that.

Heading into the fourth stop out of 10 in the 2019 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series the first weekend of February, the Americans were in an unprecedented position — tied for first place in the overall standings, with Fiji. They got there with three consecutive second-place finishes, one more top-three finish than the U.S. had ever won in an entire annual series.

The USA Men’s Eagles’ fifteens team (in white) defeated sixth-ranked Scotland last June in Houston, the squad’s biggest win since the 1924 Olympic Games.norma salinas

While the outcome of the Feb. 2-3 tournament in Sydney was not known before press time, the Eagles will almost certainly be among the top contenders heading into the only American stop on the tour, March 1-3 in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, the Eagles’ fifteens squad is on a hot streak seven months before sport’s biggest stage, the quadrennial Rugby World Cup, begins in Japan. In 2018, the Americans beat No. 6-ranked Scotland, 30-29, in front of a home crowd in Houston, its first win over a Tier 1 country since beating France in the 1924 Olympics. USA Rugby called it the team’s biggest win since those ’24 Games, and the team followed that up with a win over Tier 2 Samoa a few months later.

This past weekend, the U.S. fifteens squad started its title defense in the Americas Rugby Championship, a six-nation tournament it has won each of the last two years. 

This fall’s World Cup in Japan will be a tall test. Unlike in many of the one-off games, all 20 teams will field their best rosters. USA Rugby knows that a championship would completely change the trajectory of the sport in the U.S., but that’s not considered a realistic goal. The U.S. has never advanced out of pool play and hasn’t won a game in World Cup fifteens play since 2011.

The Americans are in pool play with Argentina, England, France and Tongo, and must finish in the top two to advance to the quarterfinals.

“Performing well in your pool is a good performance indicator,” said board member Paul Santinelli. “I would love to say our goal is to win the World Cup. I would say it’s a big goal.”

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