U.S. Sevens Teams Kick Off Season in Dubai

DUBAI, U.A.E - With the IOC decision in October allowing sevens rugby extra prominence around the world, millions of eyes were watching the action at the first major tournament since Sevens became part of the Olympic family - the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens.

While the tournament itself got off to a superb start, the U.S. Men's side had a rough first round, losing all three of its pool matches on Friday and heading into tomorrow's quarterfinal rounds in the bowl bracket.

England's Dan Norton got his side up quickly against the U.S. with a first half hat trick against the Eagles in their first match of the tournament. Ben Gollings was perfect on conversions for England and the first half score after seven minutes was 21-0.

The U.S. rebounded well with a Nick Edwards try just moments after kick-off, but England wouldn't be outdone. Despite a late second half try by the USA's Matt Hawkins, England still had the advantage and would beat the U.S. 40-12.

Edwards would score four tries for the Eagles in its next match against Kenya. Three of those tries came in the first four minutes, which gave the U.S. a 21-0 lead early out. However, Kenya came back with two tries of their own to narrow the Eagles lead to just seven at half.  In the second, the teams found themselves tied up with three minutes to play, but in a game winning try, Kenya won the nail-biter, 31-26.

With Sevens now an Olympic sport, in coming years match-ups between USA and Russia could well decide Cup titles, but today the two faced off for third place in the pool. In the end, Russia got the better of the Americans, 14-12, as Igor Galinovskiy scored the game winner for the European champions.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Men will face Portugal in the quarterfinal bowl match at 9:42 a.m. (GST), while on the Women's side, the U.S. Sevens Team finished the first day 2-2 and will play Arabian Gulf on Saturday morning.  

The young Eagles team opened up their tournament with the first game of the women's  event, losing 21-12 to France.

In game two the U.S. edged Moscow Region 12-7 in the main stadium before dropping a tough 14-12 decision to Tuks of South Africa.

They finished the first day of competition beating Bangkok 22-7, which put the USA tied at 2-2 with two other teams.

While the Eagles scored the most points in their pool, they were edged for second by Tuks. Moscow lost only one game, which was to the USA, and finished the pool play on top.

U.S. Men's Results
England 40, USA 12
Kenya 31, USA 26
Russia 14, USA 12

U.S. Women's Results
France 21, USA 12
USA 12, Moscow Region 7
Tuks 14, USA 12
USA 22, Bangkok 7

 For more information on the U.S. Men's and Women's Sevens Teams, please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/national_teams. For more information on the IRB Sevens World Series, please visit www.irbsevens.com.

Tags: sevens rugby