The USA men's sevens team is finalizing its preparations for the Sydney Sevens in Australia this weekend, but still relatively fresh in the minds of the Eagles is an 0-5 run in the Dubai Sevens last month, where they (naturally) finished last.

"That was a pretty rough experience," USA captain Madison Hughes said of the Eagles' first stop on the 2017-18 HSBC Sevens World Series. "We went in with high hopes and expectations, knowing we were capable of quite a lot, and from the beginning to the end it didn’t go our way."

Of course there was the little matter of Perry Baker getting knocked out of the tournament with a concussion in the first half of the first game. But Hughes noted that Carlin Isles did pretty well in Baker's stead.

"It wasn't just about Perry; it was everyone," Hughes said. "If you’re not at that top level, teams will punish you in the Series. For us it was an embarrassing experience. We came in say we’re going to challenge with the top teams in the world, and we finished last."

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Forecasting Sydney

The weather report for this weekend in Sydney for warm and sunny conditions with a chance of thunderstorms.

That should be no problem for the USA men's sevens team, which had to handle some heavy rains during training in Southern California before flying south.

"We had pitches waterlogged for two days, but the last few days we got through some good work," Hughes said. "When you have a plan for what you're going to practice and then the weather changes things, that can throw you off a little bit. But we dealt with it. And it's going to rain somewhere during the World Series, so we need to be ready for it."

A Chance To Rebound

The format of the World Series, with five groups of two tournaments, allows for a team to rebound quickly, and that's exactly what the Eagles did following their disaster in Dubai on Dec. 1-2. A week later in Cape Town, they shut out New Zealand and made the Cup Quarterfinals.

"A lot of it was fueled by what happened in Dubai," Hughes said. "We carried that embarrassment, but we also knew these things are fleeting. We knew we just needed to come out strong and we'd get some good results, and the boys did a really good job.

Nice, But ...

On Day Two in Cape Town, the USA team failed to live up to the promise from Day One, going 1-2 and finishing a somewhat anticlimactic sixth.

"We were certainly disappointed," Hughes said. "We had played as well as anyone, and we feel we have a shot at beating everyone. But that's not the way it turned out. Maybe we allowed ourselves to get caught up in the expectation that we would keep winning."

Sydney and Hamilton

The next two tournaments are crucial if the Eagles want to move back to the upper echelon. They have 2017 World Sevens Player of the Year Perry Baker back and healthy, and Isles there, as well, in a team that is stacked for pace.

But they can't let up, not even for a moment. They learned that. In Sydney, the USA is in a pool with Canada, Australia, and Scotland — all teams the Americans have both beaten handily and lost to recently.

In speaking about Scotland, Hughes could have been speaking about all three of the Eagles' pool opponents.

"You're not going to shut them out of the game because they work really hard," he said. "They will never give up. So we just need to continue fighting."