Hong Kong Sevens 2022: injury-plagued USA ‘face baptism by fire’ says coach Mike Friday
- With plenty of absences, Friday has selected youthful squad with four players making their debuts
- ‘I’m excited about this group,’ says skipper Perry Baker – ‘the young guys always bring that hunger, and they have that edge’
United States coach Mike Friday is under no illusions as to the size of the task that awaits his young squad when they get their Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens campaign under way against Spain tomorrow.
“It’s a baptism by fire,” Friday said. “Look, we won’t hide from the fact that this tournament is probably a month too early for us, but it is what it is.”
The USA squad arrived in Hong Kong with barely a month to recover from the end of last season and there is plenty of wear and tear to show for it.
Key players including captain Kevon Williams and vice-captain Stephen Tomasin, along with Maka Unufe, Joe Schroeder and Faitala Talapusi, have been sidelined with injury. Carlin Isles – 2019’s top overall try scorer and arguably the fastest man in rugby – remains on sabbatical.
Instead, eight of the travelling 13 players are dipping their toes into the Hong Kong Sevens extravaganza for the first time – with four making their US debuts. All the more incredible is the fact that two of those four are still at school.
“It’s a tough ask, the World Sevens Series is an unforgiving place,” Friday said. “The challenge is to be able to turn their nerves into excitement and control themselves and just do the simple things well.
“If we can do the simple things well and we can hold possession, then yes, we’ve got all of the usual ingredients that you would associate with our more experienced teams. But it is very much a time of transition for us.”
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The US return to Hong Kong having finished third in the 2019 tournament. Friday’s squad have been handed no favours in the pool draw and open their 2022 campaign against Spain before meeting a revitalised Japan and then a showdown with the undisputed kings of sevens, Fiji.
“We know that we’re going to get some bruised knees and bloody noses to allow these young players to develop, but that is the nature of the game,” Friday said.
Outside the pressures of this weekend is the plain and simple fact that 2022 will be a critical year for all the teams on the World Sevens Series.
For starters, there is Olympic qualification to consider, there is also a record number of legs on the circuit for the men and women. Friday and his young charges are staring down nine long months on the road.
“I mean, it’s massive, right? But let’s be perfectly blunt, we’ve been going at it for a solid year already and we’re now going to go at it for another nine months,” he said.
“It is tough for every rugby nation, whether they’re mature or immature, because the reality is that to maintain that sort of level of play is tough.
“I do think injuries and remaining healthy will become a part of that. If you’re able to rotate and you’re able to rest or you’ve just got a vast depth of talent like Fiji, it becomes easy, right?
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“That’s not something we have. We could have done some things differently for this tournament, but it would have probably hurt us for later tournaments. So we’ve got to manage players.”
For Perry Baker, who steps into the captain’s role for Team USA, it is all part of the journey.
“I look at it as growing pains,” he said. “They have to start at some point and somewhere and I think the sooner they start, the better it is,” he said.
“Yeah, we have a young squad, but even if we had a veteran squad nothing’s ever going to go perfect in the Series. It’s about just being able to stick together and overcome and just trust the things that we talked about in meetings and trust in ourselves on the pitch.
“I’m excited about this young group, the young guys always bring that hunger, they’re excited to play and have that edge.”
