A Closer Look At The Men & Women Eagles 7's World Cup Draw

By now hopefully you've seen the draw for the 7's World Cup. The Eagles men were drawn into Pool D with New Zealand, Canada, and Georgia while the women were drawn into Pool C with Spain, Brazil, and Fiji.

For the men the draw is particularly tough. In a normal 16 team tournament the Eagles would have a good shot at getting out of the pool, but the World Cup is a 24 team tournament. That means that only the pool winner and the top two second place teams make it to the Cup quarterfinals. On the surface of things that could make it very difficult for the Eagles. New Zealand are the defending IRB Sevens Series champions are are leading the current competition. They have only one won tournament so far this year but have played in the finals on three other occasions. Canada are another difficult team that have seemingly had the better of the U.S. on the last few occasions.


However, things may not be that black and white. One of the strongest features of the IRB Sevens Series this year has been parity. No team has won more than one stop of the Series and every team but Spain has made the Cup quarterfinals. Score lines have been closer as well. To count a team out just on reputation would be asking for trouble, especially in this pool. The U.S. has played New Zealand twice this season, losing 19-7 in the Gold Coast and 17-10 in Wellington. In both matches the U.S. had strong spells of possession and had opportunities to win the match. The match in Wellington in particular was close in a tournament the hosts went onto win. New Zealand will definitely be favorites in Pool D but to crown them winners right now may be a bit premature.

The U.S. has had similarly close results against Canada. So far the two teams have played five times on the season, including the NACRA 7's. The only IRB Sevens Series tournaments the two haven't played each other was in Wellington. By are large the scores have been close. The NACRA 7's was decided by a try. The U.S. lost to Canada in the Gold Coast by a point and in Las Vegas by a try. In South Africa the U.S. beat Canada 26-12 while they lost in Dubai 26-7. Both teams are very evenly matched with Canada having a slight edge at the moment. That edge could be gone by Moscow.

The problem is that even if the U.S. splits a pair of close matches against New Zealand and Canada that would dent any chance at making the Cup quarterfinals as one of the top two second place teams. Pools C (Samoa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Philippines), E (Fiji, Wales, Tonga, Uruguay), and F (England, Argentina, Portugal, and Hong Kong) offer better opportunities for blowouts. Still, this is 7's and anything can happen.

On the women's side the Eagles have a much easier draw. Arguably they got the best pool in the tournament as they avoided any of the other core teams and drew Spain, Brazil, and Fiji. The U.S. hasn't played any of their pool opponents so far on the IRB Women's World Series but out of the teams Spain should be the hardest. They made the Cup quarterfinals in Dubai after beating Brazil 19-0. Also going in their favor is that the tournament only features 16 teams and the top two from each pool will advance.