US Eagles 'hungry' to play at London Sevens
The New England Patriot is in Chris Brown's USA Falcons team participating in the Howard Hinton Sevens tournament this weekend in Tours, France.
Leatigaga was most recently called into Series action during the sixth leg in Vancouver, where the US Army World-Class Athlete Program athlete made his international debut.
Leatigaga made five substitute appearances at Canada tournament, scoring the team's final try of the tournament in the Plate Final defeat to Samoa with a burst of speed reminiscent of the man he replaced in the squad.
He was filling in for Carlin Isles, who was allowed to run at the 2016 USARF Indoor Track & Field Championships that weekend.
As Friday said prior to the High Performance Camp for Hong Kong and Singapore selections, the debut experience for Leatigaga – as well as the young Seth Halliman at that particular tournament – would "hopefully make them hungry to play again."
The newest Eagle will not be the only one of the 12 hungry, however, as a disappointing Bowl Semifinal exit at Paris Sevens last weekend dropped the US to sixth in the Series standings.
In London last year, the team won its first Cup Final and finished the season in sixth, the US's highest-ever standing.
The Eagles have been ranked as high as third this season, and no lower than sixth through nine rounds.
That may have been satisfactory for previous Eagles teams, but in an Olympic year Friday said there were "no excuses" for the kind of performances that kept the team from its eighth Cup quarterfinal of the season.
USA Sevens: Ben Leatigaga, Ben Pinkelman, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Zack Test, Thretton Palamo Folau Niua, Maka Unufe, Nate Augspurger, Madison Hughes (captain), Perry Baker, Martin Iosefo.
