USA vs England (Men): 3 days (July 19th)

USA vs Fiji (Women): 3 days (July 19th)

NAI Sevens (Utah): 9 days (July 25th)

West Coast Sevens (round 1): 73 days (September 27th)

The U18s finished off their South American tour with a competitive match against the Uruguay U18 squad.

We shared the only live stream available on Instagram. Unfortunately, the Veo camera was drunk and spent most of the match peering aimlessly into the fog like a lost pirate. So we could barely make out any of the action.

That being said, here are a few takeaways:

At the break, the score was tied up 12-12, but in the second half Uruguay held the USA boys scoreless and punched in a few more tries.

Final Score: USA 12 — 31 Uruguay

Bottom line: It was a big challenge—exactly what this talented USA group needs more of. Could we have won this one? Perhaps, with a few adjustments. But hindsight is 20/20. Overall, it was a solid tour for the U18s and a great learning experience. Can’t wait to see how these boys grow in the years ahead. Loads of talent here, folks.

Replay here — (starts at 03:55:00 ish)

Favorites to win RAN this year, the U19s did not disappoint. Featuring a thumping forward pack and fast, physical backs, the USA squad never let a single opponent get the upper hand during this tournament.

When you conclude a tournament with a 207—20 point difference, just about everyone deserves some praise. But we were most excited to watch the recent high school grads balling out. Quinn Miller, Mark French, and Jameson Beatty all played significant minutes in the final and played them very well.

Beatty had two tries—one of which was an individual moment of brilliance as he juked four Jamaican defenders with a fake switch-pass and took it the distance. Pure filth.

French played most of the second half, was steady at scrummy, and made several clever plays. And Miller was his usual bruising self while he was on the pitch—dude’s a unit.

Overall, a strong—albeit inevitable—finish to the tournament for the U19s.

Final score: USA 48 — 8 Jamaica

Mixed feelings about this one. (more on that below)
Also, we’re still waiting for USA Rugby to post the replay on their YouTube channel—we’ll share it when they do, for your convenience.

While we’d love to write about the U23s dominating the Maties FIRST side, walloping their FOURTH side 85-15 is less inspiring.

Nonetheless, a win is a win, and the U23s certainly didn’t hold back. Word on the street is that the USA squad dominated the scrum-down, and displayed great fitness and connection throughout the match.

Final Score: USA 85 — 15 Maties

Sure, we would prefer to have the U23s face a truly imposing foe to the end the tour, but we still applaud the boys for being a wrecking crew during their South Africa tour.

Side Note: We’ve been told that the atmosphere, training, cultural experience, and camaraderie were next level during the tour 🙌

There’s a very interesting comment on Reddit by a Maties player who was there, you should check it out (he’s the second or third commenter with username die_bungee)

🐘 The elephant in the room…COMPETITION LEVEL

There’s chatter aplenty about the level of competition USA Pathways teams have been facing.

We scoured the Reddit threads, Facebook posts, and Instagram comments so you don’t have to. Trolls and apologists—we’ve got a dose of both for you, paraphrased by Negative Nancy and Positive Paul.

Don’t shoot the messenger. We’re just sharing what we’ve found on the inter webs this week.

Here’s a roundup of the main themes, plus our take on the situation.

Negative Nancy’s take:

“So, the U19s and U23s won all their games…

Biiiiiig fart noise.

USA Rugby is broken, the MLR isn’t doing its job, and I’m generally upset.

Spain just beat the Eagles for the first time ever…embarrassing.

The U23s just played the Maties FOURTH side and slaughtered them by 70 points. Waste of time!

The U19s whooped up at RAN…and were never challenged in the least. What a joke.

The U18s spanked two U17 academy teams and then ran into a brick wall against the Uruguay U18s team. Poor tour planning! Bad coaching!

What the heck are we doing, USA Rugby? How will we ever compete at the national level if our Pathways teams are never challenged?

Who’s driving this bus? USA Rugby is careening into the abyss of mediocrity and somebody needs to be held accountable. I want heads to roll!” -Negative Nancy

Geez, take some deep breaths Nancy…

Positive Paul’s take:

“Things are great!

Winning, winning, winning! That’s what we do—win win win.

And the Eagles’ loss to Spain isn’t a big deal. We had some players out with injuries and Spain is actually a much better team than people realize—many of their players play on high level clubs in France and elsewhere. Things will get better, and there is a lot of talent incoming soon.

I mean, just look at how our U19s and U23s crushed their opponents in SA and Mexico respectively. Sure, they might not have been against top notch opponents, but all that winning builds confidence. And winning begets winning.

We’re in a great position heading towards 2027 RWC and beyond. Plus, when the MLR reaches maturity, we’ll see a rugby renaissance like never before.

Let’s just be patient with the process and enjoy the wins in the meantime.” -Positive Paul

🏉Riot take:

Ok, here’s my take on all this chatter.

This is tricky, nuanced, and there are a lot of unanswered questions.

On one hand, I want to celebrate our Pathways players. They’ve been busting their tails, traveling the globe, and playing their hearts out—regardless of the opponent. What more can you ask from a bunch of young guys representing our country and playing the best game in the world??

So I do NOT want to minimize their efforts.

But there’s a real need for an audit of this summer’s Pathways schedule and format.

And it all boils down to: What is the purpose? Where are we trying to land this plane?

Are we trying to simply keep the younger generation of players engaged, give them some team building experiences, and play some rugby on the side?

Or… are we trying to develop elite teams at each age level that can eventually lead to a formidable Eagles squad? Well, if that’s the goal, RAN should be off the table. Same with playing the Maties fourth side. Ditto for the two Argentine academy squads.

At first glance, it’s not really clear what we’re trying to accomplish with the Pathways program this summer. The training regimen is fairly intense, but the opponents are walk-overs.

Let’s take a quick inventory:

That’s 11 games total. Of those 11 games, you could make the argument that only ONE of them was truly beneficial for development. And that was the U18s loss to the Uruguay U18s.

Improvement springs from discomfort. You don’t get bigger muscles by lifting the same weight each week.

And if the Pathways international tour feels like a step down from our own national tournament in Elkhart freaking Indiana, then we have a major problem.

Now here’s a huge caveat: Not everything can be blamed on USA Rugby or the Pathways initiative.

So that’s where the questions come in: Who exactly is responsible for setting up opponents? Are competitive teams unwilling to set up matches with us? Is it because many teams are on summer break right now (so are our boys—for the record)?

Or are we just shuffling our feet, hoping someone notices we crushed the Maties fourth side and says, “Hey Uncle Sam, wanna dance?”

The U18s South American tour made the most sense. They played a tough opponent in their final game and likely learned a lot from the experience. Perhaps next time they can face 3 tough teams instead of just one?

So yeah, an audit is necessary, and some clear communication from the Pathways leadership would be phenomenal.

We’re not looking for an apology—we get that there are some external factors—but the quality of opponents needs to be stronger for the Pathways teams. We’d just like to know that there’s a plan for that.

2031 depends on it.

-Zach
Chief Rioter

🇺🇸U18s photos—last game
📸 Credit: Vasen Menon