For the second year in a role, Unites States won the 2019 U.S Sevens Rugby competition in Las Vegas. The USA Sevens is a rugby sevens tournament held annually during the first weekend of March in Las Vegas in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, drawing over 60,000 fans, and is broadcast live by many local and international media outlets.
When the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series rolled into Las Vegas at the weekend, the USA made it count, steamrolling past Samoa in a 27-0 hammering to bring to an end a run that had seen the team lose all four finals so far this season.
Defeats in the showpiece matches against New Zealand in both Dubai and Sydney and to Fiji in Cape Town and Hamilton meant that the USA had ended every meeting of the 2018/19 season as runner-up, leaving the Eagles as the league’s mid-season pacesetter. Yet, the team still remained without that elusive victory. However, that changed at Nevada’s Sam Boyd Stadium on Sunday, with Ben Pinkelman scoring twice in a five-try victory, managing to shut out a Samoan side which had plundered 33 points in its semifinal against Argentina.
“There’s something about singing your national anthem at home,” Pinkelman told the Las Vegas Review Journal after lifting the trophy in front of an American crowd. “It’s so passionate. So emotional. It just gets everybody on the same page.”Captain Madison Hughes, Matai Leuta and Martin Iosefo also touched down for the Americans in what was a repeat of the 2010 Adelaide Sevens final — the occasion, nine years ago, of team USA’s first ever final.These days, though, reaching the latter stages of competitions is something of a regular occurrence; this Pinkelman-inspired triumph followed a similarly dominant display in the 2018 Las Vegas event. A year ago on March 4, the USA beat Argentina 28-0 — the first time the USA had won a World Series tournament since the 2015 London Sevens.
