Report: Two U.S. Teams Invited To Global 7's Tournament

Twickenham is set to host the new event.

A team from New York and a team from Los Angeles will reportedly be invited to participate in an as yet unnamed global 7's tournament this summer. In speaking with The Guardian, Aviva Premiership boss Mark McCafferty--whose organization is running the tournament--said that there would be a 12 team tournament at Twickenham on August 17-18th.

According to McCafferty, four English teams will be participating along with the Auckland Blues, Stormers, Brumbies, and teams from Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires. The event does not yet have a title sponsor but will be aired by BT Sport, who recently purchased the rights to the Premiership. Plans have the event going beyond this year is everything works out with plans to expand.

As for who will be representing the U.S.--either two semi-national teams or two club teams--further details are reportedly scheduled to be announced tomorrow in a formal press conference but even then there may still be questions. The U.S. XV's team will be engaged in World Cup qualifying during that time frame but by and large that should not affect the availability of the 7's Eagles. The most notable exceptions may be Luke Hume and Blaine Scully. Still, after an 11 month season this tournament would come at the heart of the Eagles rest period. As head coach Alex Magleby told TIAR a few weeks back, his players need the time to rest and recover. But with the world class opposition and the potential exposure, it seems like a great opportunity to get their season started.