United States Rugby

With a couple weeks remaining before the next round of the IRB Sevens World Series takes place in Adelaide, Australia, the USA Sevens team begins their preparation.

A group of 19 hopefuls are training at the US Olympic training center in Chula Vista, CA to jockey for the 12 open slots on the team.

Making a surprise return to the squad is Paul Emerick, who has been granted extra time off from his professional team in Italy. If one didn't know any better, they'd think that Emerick prefers life on the sevens circuit.

One thing that is certain is that Emerick has never been shy to profess his joy of playing for the his county and his play backs that up well.

“At the start of the season one of our goals was to not have more than 21 different players play in all eight tournaments. To do that,” USA Sevens Head Coach Al Caravelli explained, “we want to keep the core group together. I’m happy that nine of the players from Las Vegas will be back competing for their spots.

"Mark Bokhoven also returns from a recent injury.  In addition, there will be two new players at the assembly. They are NFL converts who were spotted at the Las Vegas Invitational.”

The core is, indeed, in tact. As mentioned, nine of the twelve players that played in Las Vegas are in camp. Those players include Emerick, Kevin Swiryn, Matt Hawkins, Nese Malifa, Leonard Peters, Zach Test, Shalom Suniula, Marco Barnard, and Nick Edwards.

With the squad developing nicely, keeping this many players together bodes well for the next leg of the IRB Series. This group is growing in confidence at each turn as they see they are fully capable of competing with the best in the world.

Sadly, the team has lost speedster Bennie Brazell, for the time being, as he's been offered another shot at the NFL.

With their newest cross-over athlete setting his sights back on the NFL, Head Coach Al Caravelli wasted no time in bringing in his next batch of football converts to test their mettle with the National team.

Unlike Brazell, who came to the sport with no prior experience, the next two have been given their baptism to rugby at the club level.

Former Missouri football standouts Tony Temple and Tommy Saunders are joining the training camp after spending time playing for the Kansas City Blues the past few months. Both players spent time in the NFL after their collegiate careers. Temple played for the Cleveland Browns, while Saunders had stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions.

Temple, a running back by trade, rushed for 2552 yard in his collegiate career including back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons in 2006-2007. In his final collegiate game, Temple set a Cotton Bowl record with 281 yards rushing in Missouri's 38-7 win over Arkansas on New Year's Day 2008.

Saunders played wide receiver at Missouri and finished his career with 150 receptions, 1600 yards receiving, and 11 touchdowns. A physically gifted athlete and determined competitor, Saunders once challenged himself to do 100,000 pushups in a year. He finished with 100,084. A player to watch out for, Saunders has the tools and intangibles that should serve him well in sevens.

Other invitees to the training camp include youngsters Dmitri Efthmiou and Trevor Richards, both of which travelled to Fiji with the squad during their last training camp.

Mark Bokhoven also returns to camp with much to prove. Loaded with athleticism, but hampered by repeated injuries, Bokhoven may be running out of opportunities with the squad.

Rounding out the training squad are Peter Sio, Brian Barnard, Tai Enosa, Malakai Vaka, and Zach Pangelinan. All but Vaka have previous IRB experience with the USA Sevens squad.

The squad announcement is expected by the end of the week. The team will then travel to Australia this coming weekend and train in Adelaide for two days prior to the event.

Kicking off Mar. 19, the USA has been dealt another tough draw in Adelaide as they take on Sevens powerhouse England, then battle the host squad Australia, before finishing with the dangerous Polynesian nation Niue.

As with other IRB World Series events, the matches are available on ESPN360 for viewing.

Following the IRB Australia Sevens World Series stop in Adelaide, the USA joins twenty-three other nations in the biggest field of competition on the IRB Series in Hong Kong. 
 
“Hong Kong is the grand daddy of all sevens tournaments,” Caravelli added. “Every tournament has a uniqueness, from the deserts in Dubai to the wonderful costumes in Wellington and the lights of Las Vegas. But, nothing can compare to the history, tradition and the special atmosphere that Hong Kong offers. This is the closest these athletes will be to a Super Bowl type setting.”

With a team growing in experience and athleticism, the USA is poised to make even more noise on the IRB Sevens Series in the coming weeks. 
 
USA Sevens Player Pool
 
Athletes (Club)
Barnard, Brian (OMBAC)
Barnard, Marco (Kutztown University)
Bokhoven, Mark (Gentlemen of Aspen)
Edwards, Nick (NYAC)
Efthimiou, Dimitri (Mystic River)
Emerick, Paul (Parma, Italy)
Enosa, Tai (Belmont Shore)
Hawkins, Matt (Belmont Shore)
Malifa, Valenese (Belmont Shore)
Pangelinan, Zach (OMBAC)
Peters, Leonard (Gentlemen of Aspen)
Richards, Trevor (University of Nebraska)
Saunders, Tommy (KC Blues)
Sio, Peter (Belmont Shore)
Suniula, Shalom (Pearl City)
Swiryn, Kevin   (Old Puget Sound Beach)
Temple, Tony   (KC Blues)
Test, Zach (Loughborough)
Vaka, Malakai  (Reno Zephyrs)

Staff

Caravelli, Al, Head Coach
Durfee, AJ,  Doctor
Fautley, Drew, Video Coach / Manager
Hayashida, Maury, Physio
Williams, David, Strength & Skills Coach

On the back of the Olympic announcement and the highly successful Las Vegas Sevens event, rugby has made yet another huge leap in the United States.

American International Media, owners of the USA Sevens Tournament and Rugby Magazine, are set to launch the first ever Collegiate Sevens Championship in conjunction with USA Rugby and NBC.

NBC will broadcast live from the tournament, which takes place June 5-6 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The broadcast marks collegiate rugby’s debut on network television.

For fans of collegiate rugby, this may be a bit of a bittersweet pill. Many have heralded the explosion of college rugby, but I’m betting most never expected that breakthrough would come via sevens. While the full game of rugby has gotten more and more exposure in recent years at the collegiate level, the few television broadcasts have come through ESPN U which is not available as a regular channel through most providers.

In one weekend in June, more viewers will have access to the Collegiate Sevens Championship than all previous collegiate rugby broadcasts combined.

NBC will broadcast the games in the 4:30-6:00pm (EST) time slot on both Saturday and Sunday, while Universal Sports will air coverage from 2:00-4:30pm (EST) both days. Further details on the tournament are expected in the coming week.

NBC Sports Executive VP Jon Miller said, “Rugby Sevens is an exciting, fast-paced sport that is growing in global popularity, participation and interest. USA Sevens is the ideal partner for this event, which features the best collegiate rugby teams in the country.”

The tournament consists of sixteen teams, some that are the cream of the crop and others that have more traditional collegiate brand appeal. Reports suggest that American International Media and NBC handpicked the lineup of teams and the choices are understandable. If they are able to tap into the vast collegiate sports market there is a limitless world ahead of them and sevens.

The tournament field includes current rugby powerhouses Cal, Penn State, San Diego State, Utah, Army, Navy, and Dartmouth as well as Arizona State, Florida, Harvard, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Stanford, Tennessee, and Yale.

Yes, some of the teams are “head scratchers” in terms of competition level. Yes, there are teams out there that could compete better. It is all part of the process of selling not only college sevens, but also the collegiate rugby brand. As a commercial product as well as a collegiate championship, some of the teams chosen are there because of who they are and fan bases that they represent.

Teams such as Kutztown, St. Mary’s, Arkansas State, and a handful of others may feel slighted. From a pure playing perspective they have every right to feel that way as well. For a first-up offering on National television, the Collegiate Sevens Championship needs big names to fill out the field for obvious reasons.

Never fear, with this tournament serving as a stepping stone for the future there will be plenty of opportunities down the road for teams, like St. Mary’s and Kutztown, to make their mark in collegiate sevens.

Who knows, teams like Michigan, Arizona State, and Florida may surprise everyone. The schools certainly aren’t lacking for athletes. The opportunity to play a growing and exciting Olympic sport on national television should be an interesting proposal for scholarship athletes who have finished their eligibility.

The simple fact that NBC is interested in the product shows the level that they believe the sport can reach. There’s no real secret as to why, all of a sudden, there is major interest in sevens from broadcasters. If one weren’t familiar with the origins of sevens, you could be lured into thinking that it was a game made specifically for television. With breaks every seven minutes and non stop action, sevens gives fans plenty to cheer for and advertisers plenty of commercial options.

The choice of dates may also be quite telling. The championship coincides with the start of the Churchill Cup in Colorado. The Churchill Cup has struggled with attendance in America and has traditionally been broadcast on the now defunct Setanta Sports. There has been limited exposure for the tournament outside of the rugby playing community. Recent finals have hovered around 10,000 people in attendance.

The Collegiate Sevens Championship has a chance to throw down a marker for college rugby and the game of sevens if it can rack up strong attendance and viewing numbers. However, the tournament will lack the international drawing power that helped put 40,000 people in the seats for the Las Vegas Sevens.

A big weekend in Columbus will go a long way towards opening more doors for the sport in America.

This article was originally published on www.rugbyamerica.net .

For the second consecutive year, the Churchill Cup play will take place solely on American soil. The Churchill Cup is an alliance between the English Rugby Football Union (RFU), Rugby Canada, and USA Rugby. The tournament was launched in 2003 aiming to develop and grow the sport of rugby union in North America.

Glendale, Colorado’s Infinity Park will once again serve as the hosts for the pool play round of the tournament and the newly constructed Red Bull Arena in New Jersey will host the Finals.

The new venue aside, the Churchill Cup will take on additional changes as four of the six teams involved are now full international sides. This is an exciting development for the tournament as it gives teams such as the United States and Canada more opportunities for full international tests.

Gone from last year’s lineup are Ireland A and the Argentina Jaguars. Returning sides are the United States, Canada, and the England Saxons. Newcomers to the tournament include France A, Russia, and Uruguay.

“The Churchill Cup is a vital part of our international season and offers top flight international competition, as well as providing increased exposure of the sport to new audiences in the United States,” said Nigel Melville, Chief Executive Officer of USA Rugby.

“We are excited to be returning to Infinity Park and to be staging the finals day at a new venue, the Red Bull Arena, a world-class stadium that provides both players and fans with an unparalleled experience.”

Pool play takes place June 5 through June 13 at Infinity Park. Opened in September 2007 with a 4,000-seat game-day capacity, Infinity Park is one of the only rugby-specific stadiums in the United States. 

“In June 2009, rugby enthusiasts from around the world came to Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado to experience world-class rugby at the seventh Annual Churchill Cup. It is so exciting to see this great sport growing in communities throughout this country.  We are honored to host the Churchill Cup again in 2010 at Infinity Park, the first rugby-specific stadium in the U.S,” said Mike Dunafon, Mayor Pro Tem, Glendale, Colorado.

Set to open on March 20, Red Bull Arena plays host to the Finals of the Churchill Cup on June 19. The state-of-the-art soccer-specific facility, currently under construction in Harrison, New Jersey, is the new home of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer (MLS).

The overall seating capacity at Red Bull Arena is 25,189, including 30 luxury suites (20 on the lower level and 10 on the upper level) and 1,116 club seats. Other amenities include three stadium clubs and two retail outlets. The suite and club seating areas are located on the west side of the field and each location has access to their own private club areas.

"We are honored to host the Finals of the Churchill Cup at Red Bull Arena," said Red Bull New York Managing Director Erik Stover. "It continues our commitment to bringing top international events to the Metropolitan New York area. This event fits well into the schedule of Red Bull Arena as the Red Bulls are on their World Cup break.”

With so little in the way of full international tests for both the United States and Canada, the new lineup of teams is a positive step forward for the tournament. The lack of parity in the past created little interest from fans as both the Eagles and Maple Leafs struggled.

Pool A
Canada
Uruguay
France A

Pool B
USA
Russia
England Saxons

Saturday June 5 - Infinity Park - Glendale, Colorado
Canada v Uruguay
USA v Russia

Wednesday June 9 - Infinity Park - Glendale, Colorado
England Saxons v Russia
France A v Uruguay

Sunday June 13 - Infinity Park - Glendale, Colorado
USA v England Saxons
Canada vs France A

Saturday June 19
Finals Day - Red Bull Arena - Harrison, New Jersey

The USA Sevens team completed an emotional and successful weekend with a 28-17 victory over France to take the Bowl Championship at the inaugural Las Vegas Sevens stop on the IRB World Series.

In the Main Event, Samoa defeated New Zealand 33-12 in the Cup Championship.

The USA's Bowl title gives the team their first points of the season on the IRB Series.

"These were our first points of the season and winning the Bowl is important to us in order to maintain our core status in the IRB Series. I told the team at the halftime of the South Africa game, winners never quit so let's keep going as hard as we possibly can," U.S. Men’s Sevens Head Coach Al Caravelli said.

The USA started off Day 1 of the tournament with the tough task of taking on powerhouse Fiji and nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament as they pushed the Fijiians to the brink in a 14-12 loss.

"We started the game really well against Fiji, but two mistakes cost us two tries, which was disappointing, as we had a game plan and followed it very well," Caravelli said.

The USA followed the close loss to Fiji by spotting South Africa a 26-0 lead in the first half. The USA regrouped for the second half and outscored South Africa in the second frame, but the huge deficit was far too much to overcome as they fell 33-12.

With two losses in their first two pool games, the USA went into their final pool play match in desperate need of a win over their archrivals Canada.

The USA came storming out of the gates and rolled to a 26-5 win. The exclamation point on the win came in the dying moments as Paul Emerick broke a tackle and made a break, before passing off to former Olympic hurdler Bennie Brazell, who finished by scoring a try on his first-ever touch of the ball on the IRB Series.

"It was a good team try," Brazell said. "I think we’d rather it was against Fiji or South Africa, but I’m happy I got to compete. It was an honor to represent the U.S. on our home soil. I have to thank my teammates and coach for that. It was truly an honor."

The big win in their final pool play match gave the USA a favorable draw in the Bowl Quarterfinals. The USA's opponent, Guyana had given opponents a tough time in pool play and the USA came in wary. The USA kept rolling as they took a 33-0 lead into the break and held out for a 33-12 win.

Next came Argentina in a rematch of the USA Sevens 2009 Cup Semifinal, which Argentina won in controversial fashion. The USA jumped out to a 19-0 lead over Argentina shortly after halftime and held on for a massive 19-14 win.

Perhaps the most rewarding victory of the weekend for the USA, the team also did it without Captain Kevin Swiryn, who injured his ankle in the win over Guyana.

The deciding try for the USA in the semifinal was scored off of the opening kickoff of the second half, as Zach Test showed his athleticism by taking the restart kick high in the air, spinning out of a tackle and scoring between the posts in front of a stunned Argentine team.

The victory set up the Bowl Final against France. The two teams locked in a classic duel that went all the way until the final moments when the USA sealed the victory with a great break by Kevin Swiryn, who was back from his earlier injury, and finished by Nese Malifa.

It's hard to pick out a team MVP from the weekend as so many different players put in big performances for the USA. Matt Hawkins was among the tournament leaders with six tries and played withpower, leadership, and determination all weekend.

A close second goes to Nese Malifa who was near perfect playing every minute of all six games this weekend.

The emotional MVP of the weekend clearly goes to Marco Barnard, whose father passed away earlier in the week. Barnard took his game to another level in Las Vegas and was a vital part of the run for the USA.

"It’s been a difficult week for Marco, but the team has dedicated the USA Sevens tournament to his father and the players have really rallied around him," Caravelli said.

That's not to overlook the rest of the squad as Nick Edwards, Paul Emerick, Kevin Swiryn, and Zach Test played extremely well. Shalom Suniula, Leonard Peters, Mile Pulu and Thretton Palamo all provided an added boost throughout the tournament.

Peters continues his progression and, with less than a year of rugby under his belt, looks like a seasoned veteran.

Let's also not forget Bennie Brazell, the former Cincinnati Bengal and Olympic hurdler, who played the first minutes of hopefully a long and successful sevens career.

It was a complete team effort for the USA. With such a tough pool, the USA faced steep odds in order to reach the Cup round. The squad nearly did it with a near upset of Fiji and made up for it by cruising through to the Bowl Championship.

That position is exactly where the USA needs to be at this point. Challenging for a birth in the Cup round should be a given for the USA, but in the event they come up short the team should always be a favorite to take the Bowl Championship and the IRB Series points that come with it.

After nearly a month together from their preparation in Fiji then on to New Zealand and finally Las Vegas, the team has made great strides and yet again shows what can happen when the USA gets time together and consistency in the squad.

The next action on the IRB Series for the USA Sevens team comes March 19-21 as the team heads to Adelaide, Australia.

With the inevitable changes that the team will go through between now and Adelaide, it's hard to predict if this momentum will be stalled. The positive that the USA has in their favor is a strong core of players that are growing in experience at each turn.

A battered and bruised USA Sevens team pulled it together down the stretch to claim the Shield at the Wellington, New Zealand Sevens tournament.

After finishing 1-2 in pool play, the USA dropped their Bowl Quarterfinal to France 21-10 and fell to the Shield competition. There, the USA upended Scotland 19-12 behind two tries from Nese Malifa to reach the Shield Final against Tonga. The game was a repeat of Day One of the competition where the USA knocked off Tonga to get their first pool play victory of the 2009/2010 IRB Season.

USA took an early lead with a Matt Hawkins try, but Tonga fought back with two converted tries to push their lead to 14-5 midway through the second half.

USA came right back and got within striking distance with a Nick Edwards try that was set up by a nice cross-field kick from Nese Malifa. On the restart, a excellent tackle from Paul Emerick put Tonga deep in their own half. A turnover later, Emerick got the ball and found a seam to score with seconds left on the clock.

Malifa converted and the USA won 17-14 in dramatic fashion.

USA failed to come away with IRB points, but their 3-3 record and Shield Title marks their best performance of the season.The pressure is now on the squad to come up big in Las Vegas for a variety of reasons.

This coming weekend, America has their turn in hosting the IRB Sevens Series as the the teams decsend on Las Vegas for this biggest weekend on the American rugby radar.

Injuries to Mark Bokhoven and Ata Malifa will facilitate a roster change heading into Las Vegas.

Just dismissed last week from the squad, former-NFL player and Olympic hurdler Bennie Brazell and young speedster Dmitri Ethmiou are the front runners to fill the void. With the tournament played on home soil, former USA Sevens stalwart Thretton Palamo may also be a possiblity to join the team as he is now playing rugby at the University of Utah.

Las Vegas serves as the midway point for the IRB Series. For the USA, the tournament presents the team’s best chance to come away with some IRB points. The team has traditionally fared very well on home soil, and they certainly need a boost this season.

Let’s not forget that the USA is in danger of losing their “Core” member status on the IRB Circuit.

As of this weekend, ten teams have notched points on the series with Canada pulling in at 10th place with six points. Other Core Teams such as Scotland, Tonga, and France have yet to notch points, but it is inevitable that one or all of them will at some point. 

The USA is going to need at least two Cup Quarterfinal appearances to have a hope of retaining their Core member status on the IRB Circuit.

Dropping back at this point will be a major blow to the USA Sevens program.  The US Olympic Committe will also be watching closely since they are slowly becoming more involved in the progress and direction of the team.

The USA Sevens squad is off to Fiji to begin an unprecedented buildup to the USA Sevens which will take place in just under four weeks time. The preparation includes playing in the Digical Suva Sevens in Fiji, another week of training with Fiji Sevens squad, before heading off to the Wellington (NZ) Sevens, and culminating in the USA Sevens in Las Vegas February 13-14.

With high expectations for Las Vegas, the big buildup may be just what the doctor ordered. USA 7's Coach Al Caravelli also got a surprise infusion to the squad as Paul Emerick was made available for the events by his professional team in Italy.

With the return of Team Captain Kevin Swiryn from injury and Emerick added to the squad the USA Sevens team has just gotten a lot better. Swiryn is a bonafide sevens star and Emerick brings a toughness and spark to the team that has been lacking this season.

Both players were key ingredients in the USA Sevens squad that reached the Cup Semi-Finals at the USA Sevens in 2009. Swiryn, teamed with budding sevens star Nick Edwards (8 tries in 2 IRB events this season) gives the USA two big time finishers. With them, the mix that Caravelli is working on might pull off some magic in the coming weeks.

Caravelli takes a revamped squad of fifteen players to Fiji and will whittle that group down to 12 players for the Wellington and Las Vegas stops on the IRB Sevens World Series.

New additions to the squad also include Marco Barnard who put in some good work towards the end of last year's sevens series, Dimitiri Efthimiou who opened eyes during Belmont Shore's recent trip to the Plata Del Mar Sevnes tournament in Argentina for sevens hopefuls, Trevor Richards from the University of Nebraska who was in sevens camp earlier this season, and Bennie Brazell who is, by far, the most intriguing of the bunch.

Brazell joins the USA Sevens team with no prior rugby experience, but holds with him everything that the rugby world fears from the massive pool of elite athletes that exists in the United States.

All experience issues aside, if he makes the sevens squad, for Wellington and Las Vegas, Brazell could be considered one of the best pure athletes on the sevens circuit. Checking in at 6'0" and 182 lbs, size is not an issue. Brazell played football at Louisiana State University before being drafted in the seventh round (2006) by the Cincinnati Bengals.

He was also an All-American track star in college and placed 8th in the 400 meter hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games. The combination of Olympic level speed and football instinct are the type of package that have American rugby fans salivating over cross-over athletes. How he takes to the game is a tale yet to be told.

Expect Caravelli to give him a chance to get his feet wet. Crossover athletes aren't new to Caravelli's camps, but past crossovers were never really given the opportunity to play in pressure situations. That trend has been acknowledged by Caravelli and something that he has remedied in the past year.

Leonard Peters was the first break through, taking to the game quickly, and while many still refer to him as a cross-over athlete he has done enough to merit being called a rugby player.

With the success of Peters this past year and the Olympic inclusion for sevens, expect even more and more converts in the coming years. While you can never overlook the rugby skills and instincts that come with playing the game from a young age, pure unabashed athleticism cannot be ignored.

That's the great part of the game of sevens and why the United States will be considered among the elite of the sevens world far before they gain that same recognition in 15's. The game of sevens is a far easier game in which to adapt athletes to rugby.

While there are still plenty of nuances to pick up, if you put an Olympic class runner with the cutting ability and power of an NFL player into space...try and stop him.

And yes, America has a lot of guys like that.

USA Sevens Squad:
Kevin Swiryn (Old Puget Sound Beach) Captain
Marco Barnard (Kutztown University)
Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians)
Bennie Brazell (Unattached)
Nick Edwards (NYAC)
Dimitri Efthimiou (Mystic River)
Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma)
Matt Hawkins (Belmont Shore)
Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore)
Nese Malifa (Belmont Shore)
Leonard Peters (Aspen)
Mile Pulu (SFGG)
Trevor Richards (University of Nebraska)
Shalom Suniula (Pearl City)
Zack Test (Loughborough Students)

The weekend was full of great quality rugby and it was almost all available on the new Ustream USA Rugby site (They had generator problems all weekend so some games were missed or partially availablle. This includes the Women's final, we only saw about 8 minutes of it).

Northeast Women, West Men Take Home Titles at All-Star Sevens

Your Scrumhalf Connection—Women's Rugby Blog. Daily posts about rugby across the world! Read the blog at http://yourscrumhalfconnection.com and follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/scrumhalblog.

I don't know about you, but I feel like we just haven't made any progress.

At all.

In fact, if you tell me that we are making progress as a rugby country, be thankful that I won't be able to come inside you room, ask you to drop your pants, bend over, and give you the whipping you deserve with a Singapore-sized rattan cane.

We are not. And it's obvious why.

At the house of horrors that is Edmonton's Ellerslie Rugby Park, we failed in predictable fashion, 41-18.

We can't lift a middle finger to Canada in rugby just like they can't lift two fingers to us in soccer or American football. Palm inward.

Thanks to the efforts of players like D.T.H. van der Merwe and James Pritchard (hey, Belmont Shore RFC could use both of their services), Canada wins on aggregate 47-30 and will be making travel plans to New Zealand.

As for us, our next destination is not Auckland, but...Montevideo.

Bloody Montevideo, of all places.

This is a disgrace. A sheer disgrace. We have to beat Uruguay to qualify. AGAIN.

Let me repeat: Uruguay. A side that we can beat...with BYU or Cal's reserves.

Uruguay: a team that we can destroy with our eyes closed.

Uruguay: a national side whose round-ball counterparts would give us a sterner test, hands down.

Let's give credit where credit is due: Canada steamrolled over us the same way that one of its native sons (who I highly touted), Georges St. Pierre, pounded BJ Penn. And they should have. They earned each and every one of those 41 points in the second leg.

But divine right indicated that we weren't going to be ready against the only competitive national rugby team in North America today.

To the Eagles' credit, they scored points in this leg. The problem for them was that it was too little, too late.

I think that the only way we could even stand a fraction of a chance is if we traded our best players with theirs.

I am going to be straight-up honest with you: we needed to win against Canada today. Six points is not an insurmountable margin to make up.

To not be able to beat the Canucks in a two-game series suggests in my view that we are no different than the team that qualified before (through Uruguay) and the team that qualified before that, and the team that qualified before that.

Heck, you can quote me on this: as a coach of the USA Eagles, Eddie O'Sullivan is no better than the two managers that came before him in our recent blowout in the Great White North.

And Eddie, I'm even going to go further and suggest that you should step down as our head coach.

Surely you should have ingrained into our national team's head that this might as well be the cup final for them.

Surely you should have given them the motivation to finally beat our neighbors to the north over two legs.

Surely you have ensured that they got the job done. Surely.

They didn't. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

And what in the name of William Webb Ellis was with that red card, Paul Emerick?

As if this loss wasn't bad enough, you just had to rub salt into your own wounds. How dare you put your game into disrepute.

This day should go down as a dark day in the development of rugby union here in the USA. And this is coming from someone who has been a webmaster to a university rugby club for three seasons before graduating.

I will never recognize any positives that will come out of a wasted opportunity to boost rugby's standing here in the United States of America. Why? There aren't any.

I just can't see any. And I am not wearing any rose-tinted glasses, either.

USA Rugby, you let us down once again. And for some reason unknown to me other than history, I could see the ineptness coming like a train headed to the point of no return.

Don't you dare think, even for a minute, that I couldn't.

I could. It was too easy, and it was too predictable.

We know how to beat Canada in soccer, and a ragtag bunch of high schoolers playing our code knew how to dust off their counterparts in Canton a few weeks ago.

But sadly for us, we know how to choke against Canada in rugby. And the painful reality is that we're not going to give up our role as chokers any time soon.

We simply don't deserve to. And you know what? I do not believe we should, unless we can figure it out in four years' time.

News flash: Bob Bradley: should you face Canada in the knockout stages, think of your rugby counterparts' ineptitude today.

Please kill them the same way they killed us in the killing fields of Edmonton. There can be no excuses if you don't.

Because there sure weren't any excuses for failing to kick the habit of choking against Canada in Rugby World Cup qualification.