USA Sevens aren't afraid of NZ

 

Eagles assistant coach and former England and Lions hooker Phil Greening believes if New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens makes the call to include some of the big names that have expressed an interest in playing at the 2016 Olympics, his side would have no problem in matching them.

 

It has been a stellar month for the Eagles who won the sevens series finale in London and secured their place at the Rio games with a 21-15 win over Canada at the North America and Caribbean (NACRA)Olympic qualification tournament.

 

Greening said it would be "interesting" if the Kiwi sevens squad chose to field players like Julian Savea and Beauden Barrett, as they chase Olympic gold.

 

Barrett represented the national sevens team in 2010, but has been a regular member of the All Blacks squad since 2012.

 

"It's the knowledge and the understanding of the game that they have that we have got to match. We've got to keep building that while striving to be the fittest and most powerful team on the circuit."

 

Greening credited a change in the coaching ethos as the reason behind their recent success, with head coach Mike Friday as well as Kiwi assistant coach Chris Brown changing the environment around the team.

 

"It was tough at the start, because two English guys coming in and a Kiwi sort of upset a lot of people, especially the players 'cause some of them thought we were mad. We had a few battles because there's a different culture over here, and a different way to coach.

 

"I think our coaching is not the standard way over here, there's a different way to coach in America. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems very much a 'tell' culture, where the coach is king. We ripped that apart and I think that was maybe difficult for the boys to understand. But we got there."

 

The USA squad is mainly made up of players who have transitioned out of American Football. Greening said the squad hasn't changed much in terms of personnel, but has changed its attitude.

 

After a heavy 40-0 loss against Scotland in Glasgow earlier in the 2014/2015 sevens series, the Englishman said the whole team took responsibility for their poor performance.

 

"The wake-up call in Scotland was massive. We were terrible in that game, really off, and we had to find out why. That night we had a team meeting, an honesty session.

 

"We said to the lads, 'you need to step up, because me and mike we haven't got all the answers' and they talked it out and day two they turned up and were a lot better. We went from there."

 

After the Eagles dominated England and Australia in London, there is no doubt that they have a chance of winning a medal in Rio.