United States National Rugby Union Team (sevens)
The United States national rugby union sevens team represents the United States in international rugby sevens competitions, including the IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and World Games, and will represent the United States in the Summer Olympics in 2016. The Eagles also play in regional tournaments, such as the Pan American Games and the NAWIRA 7s.
The Eagles have seen tremendous improvement at the IRB Sevens World Series, a tournament with 9 events across the world, including the USA Sevens tournament held every February in Las Vegas. The Eagles have been a "core team" in the World Series and finished in the top 12 each season since 2008-09. The Eagles best season to date in the World Series was 2009-10 when they finished 10th, ahead of traditional powers France and Scotland, and reached the cup finals of the 2010 Adelaide Sevens, their first ever cup finals for a World Series tournament. The Eagles best result at the USA Sevens tournament was 2009, when they reached the semifinals.
Other successes include winning a bronze medal at the 2011 Pan American Games, and winning the 2008 NAWIRA RWC 7s Qualifier to clinch a spot in the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
The United States traditionally used the 7s team to prepare players for the XV-side. The national sevens team had also drawn a number of crossover athletes from other sports, such as football and track. Since January 2012, however, due to increased attention generated by rugby's return to the Olympics in 2016, the national sevens team has turned professional, with the team extending paid full-time contracts to its core players.
Read more about United States National Rugby Union Team (sevens): Players, IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympics, Rugby Union At The World Games, Pan American Games, Other International Competitions, Honors, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words united, states, national, union and/or team:
“I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.”
—Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac (1619–1655)
“Just so before we’re international,
We’re national and act as nationals.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Every good cause gained a victory when the Union troops were triumphant. Our final victory was the triumph of religion, of virtue, of knowledge.... During those four years, whatever our motives, whatever our lives, we were fighting on God’s side. We were doing His work. What would this country have been if we had failed?”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Imagination is a valuable asset in business and she has a sister, Understanding, who also serves. Together they make a splendid team and business problems dissolve and the impossible is accomplished by their ministrations.... Imagination concerning the world’s wants and the individual’s needs should be the Alpha and Omega of self-education.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)