Was this the best year for the USA's senior national teams in their history?
Sure, one specific team will have had years that earned more accolades (such as the women's national team in 1991 and women's national sevens squad in 2009). But if you total up the wins and losses, and where the various Eagles teams logged some historic finishes, overall this could be USA Rugby's most successful year ever.
That gives us plenty of fodder to put together a list of the Eagles' top stories from 2017:
Men’s Eagles Win ARC
The 2016 Americas Rugby Championship started out well and ended on something of an embarrassing note, with the USA team losing twice on the road to finish 2-2-1. That included the worst upset since World Rugby when Brazil edged the USA by a point.
That season was a harsh lesson in how nothing can be taken for granted in international rugby, and that disappointment provided dividends in 2017. After a somewhat difficult victory over Uruguay, the Eagles got revenge over Brazil, beat Vancouver in an 85-point barn burner, and hammered Chile. That set up a clash with the Argentina XV, also 4-0, on March 4.
In that game, the Eagles went in 4-0, with a points difference of plus-119 and 19 points in the standings. Argentina XV was plus-228 in points differential and also had 19 standings points.
In a winner-take-all match, Argentina took a 27-15 midway through the second half. Those 27 points had come from three converted tries and two penalties (that’s important). So with time winding down Cam Dolan scored in the corner to make it 27-20. There was precious little time to go, but somehow the USA got back into scoring position and David Tameilau went in under the posts. That was important, because Ben Cima’s conversion tied the game at 27-27. Both teams ended 4-0-1, but the USA had scored four tries in the final game. That gave the Eagles an extra bonus point in the standings to clinch the ARC title over Argentina, 22 points to 21.
Since the 1924 Olympics, the USA has played in the Pacific Rim Championship (1996-2002), the Super Cup (2003-2005), the Churchill Cup (2003-2009), seven World Cups, and the 2016 ARC and never won. But now, 93 years after an Olympic gold medal, the Eagles are champions in a 15s tournament again.
Women Finish Top 4 In WRWC
The USA women were not in the best position to do well in the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August and had been struggling to get back to the level of prominence they enjoyed in the 1990s. With Canada and New Zealand expected to rack up big scored against weak opposition in Pool A, it was also going to be very difficult to get to the semis without winning the pool.
That’s what we said on FloRugby, and we were wrong. Somehow the Eagles got a fourth try against Italy to win 24-12 and get a bonus point. Then they slammed Spain 43-0 to go 2-0. All eyes, however, were on how Canada and New Zealand were winning by massive amounts.
And then a shocker. Canada failed somehow to score four tries against Wales. Now bonus points, not just points difference, would come into play to find the best second-place team to make the semis. Four days later, the USA lost to England but scored four tries, clinching the best record among second-place teams and making the semis.
The Eagles lost to New Zealand in the semifinal, but the scoreline was the closest of any Black Ferns opponent save England. The USA then lost to France 31-23 in the third-place playoff. That was a shame, but, still, fourth was the best USA finish since 1998.
USA Men’s 7s Finish In Top 5
It wasn’t that long ago that the USA team was in danger of being dropped from the World Series due to poor performances. In 2011-12, the points system in the World Series was changed, giving every team points for where it finished in a tournament. Before, if you finished below ninth (winning the Bowl), you got zero.
This was good timing for the USA team, as that year it claimed no trophies at all and failed to make the top eight once. Halfway decent finishes on the second day of tournaments netted the USA 41 points in the new system, good for 11th. Under the older system, the USA would have earned zero points and dropped behind Kenya, Canada, Tonga, Spain, and Russia to last among core teams.
That reprieve gave the Eagles time to develop some young players and build on being full-time.
In 2014-15 the USA finished sixth with 108 series points and won the London Sevens. In 2016-17, the Eagles went one better, finishing fifth with 129, and while the USA team failed to win a tournament, the squad’s consistency, including making the semis five times out of six, put the Eagles among the elite.
USA Qualifies For Men’s Rugby World Cup
Qualifying for the Rugby World Cup has been an exercise fraught with worry. The Eagles have never qualified on the first try and indeed in 1994 (for the 1995 RWC) didn’t make it at all.
Once the tournament expanded to 20 teams, you’d think it would be easier, but it hasn’t been for the USA. In 1998 (for the 1999 event) the Eagles played Argentina, Canada, and Uruguay and needed a close win over the Uruguayans to finish third in that group and take the final seed.
In 2002, the USA barely did enough to finish third behind Canada and Uruguay. The Eagles had to play a two-game repechage series with Spain to qualify.
In 2006, after getting blown out by Canada, the USA needed two wins over Uruguay to make it, and that was the same story four years later. And finally, in 2014, after losing once again to Canada, the Eagles tied Uruguay in the first of two games and were in danger of losing in the second game before a flurry of late tries put them through.
Never had the USA qualified ahead of Canada. Only once had the Eagles even beaten the Canadians in a qualification game, and that had been part of a two-game series that Canada had won.
But in 2017, that all changed. The two teams tied in their opener in Ontario, in part thanks to a few silly errors by the Eagles. But in the return engagement July 1 in San Diego, Canada was without its two best players, and the USA team showed it had learned some lessons. The Eagles blew away Canada for a record-breaking win and qualified for the Rugby World Cup six months earlier than history would have led us to expect.
John Mitchell Leaves Eagles
One of the results of the USA MNT qualifying for the Rugby World Cup in July is that head coach John Mitchell had now achieved his two most important goals: putting together a team that could win the ARC and, more importantly, qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Mitchell was coaching the Eagles as part of his plan to get back into elite-level (international or major pro) coaching, and with his contract something of an albatross around USA Rugby’s neck, his move to the Blue Bulls in South Africa was a financial boost for cash-strapped USA Rugby and the next step for Mitchell. The Blue Bulls ended up 5-7, and USA Rugby hired Gary Gold.
Perry Baker Wins Sevens Player Of The Year
With Carlin Isles out injured, Perry Baker had to carry more of the load for the USA men’s sevens team in the 2017 World Series. Baker did that and more, leading the World Series in tries (57), points (285), and line breaks (76). In an environment in which the top-tier nations get most of the attention, Baker was a strong candidate for World Sevens Player of the Year, but many worried that he’d be overlooked because he “only” played for the USA.
No worries, however, as Baker was rightly recognized for his accomplishment. At the World Rugby Awards, he was the only representative of a Tier 2 rugby nation, man or woman, to get an award.
Unfortunately, 2017 didn't end so well for Baker, as he suffered a concussion in the first game of the Dubai Sevens and missed the rest of that tournament and Cape Town, as well.