For Immediate Release
December 6, 2008

U.S. Goes 0-2 on Final Day of South Africa Sevens

GEORGE, South Africa – After flourishing during the first day of competition at the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens event, the U.S. Men’s Sevens Team just couldn’t find similar success on the second day, falling to New Zealand and Portugal, and cutting short its hopes of securing another piece of hardware on Saturday in George, South Africa.

The Eagles were able to secure four IRB Sevens World Series points, however, with their pool play achievements yesterday. Unfortunately, the U.S. Team met the fierce New Zealand side in its first Cup quarterfinals match this morning and found itself on the losing side of the score line, falling 36-7 to the defending champions.

“Except for a couple of mistakes here and there, these guys did a phenomenal job this weekend,” U.S. Sevens Coach Al Caravelli said. “We implemented a couple of new things, both offensively and defensively and it was great to see the team adjust to something new so quickly. We will definitely use this experience as a springboard to launch from down the road.

“We also were able to play a full game, as you can see by our match against Australia and Georgia, yesterday,” Caravelli added. “Our matches against South Africa and New Zealand were really tough and both opponents made us pay for our mistakes, but once we work on that - our mental toughness and focus – we will be able to compete with anyone.”

The U.S. Eagles made three crucial mistakes that New Zealand turned into three critical tries, and even though the USA’s Justin Boyd was able to put one down over the line just before half, New Zealand was too experienced to let the U.S. get any real foothold.

The U.S. then went on to face Portugal in the Plate semifinals. Portugal was also on fire yesterday, but lost to Argentina in its own Cup quarterfinals match this morning. Portugal would continue to impress, however, scoring four tries against the U.S. side, before Mark Bokhoven was able to put the U.S. on the board in the 13^th minute. The Eagles were not able to do much at that point and Portugal walked away with a 24-7 victory over the Americans.

“We didn’t end the tournament the way we wanted,” Caravelli said. “We think we are still a better team than that, but we beat Australia for the first time ever and walked away with IRB points and we are very, very pleased with that.”

South Africa would end up winning their home Sevens Cup title for the first time, coming from behind in a thrilling final to beat defending champions New Zealand, 12-7. With this victory, South Africa also sealed successive IRB Sevens World Series Cup titles for the first time and open up a 12-point lead in the early season standings. After superb victories in both Dubai and George, Paul Treu's side has a maximum 40 points in the World Series, ahead of New Zealand at 28 and England and Fiji at 24.

Most Teams will now disperse for the holidays, only to come back early in the New Year to prepare for the second set of IRB Sevens World Series events in Wellington, New Zealand and San Diego, Calif. in early February.

“This tournament was key in helping us identify who is ready to go to the next set of IRB Sevens tournaments,” Caravelli finished. “Those tournaments in early 2009 will be very crucial for the team, since it will most likely be the same side heading to the IRB’s 2009 RWC Sevens.”

For more information on the U.S. Men’s Sevens Team, please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/mens_sevens. For more information on the IRB Sevens World Series, visit www.irbsevens.com.

IRB South Africa Sevens

Day 2 Results

France 26, Georgia 14 

Kenya 19, Scotland 15 

Wales 26, Zimbabwe 24 

Australia 33, Tunisia 21 

New Zealand 36, USA 7 

Argentina 28, Portugal 19

Fiji 19, Samoa 12

South Africa 17, England 12 

Scotland 17, Georgia 12

Zimbabwe 40, Tunisia 5 

France 19, Kenya 14 

Australia 22, Wales 19

Portugal 24, USA 7

England 20, Samoa 19

New Zealand 26, Argentina 5 

South Africa 21, Fiji 7

Zimbabwe 26, Scotland 0 - Final Shield

France 21, Australia 12 - Final Bowl

England 24, Portugal 7 - Final Plate

South Africa 12, New Zealand 7 - Final Cup

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