The USA Men's Sevens' medal contention at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 ended earlier than hoped after a quarterfinal loss to Australia, 0-18. After a dominant 33-17 win against Uruguay to book a spot in the knockout rounds, the Eagles were unable to find their connection to stay in medal contention.
The Eagles ran out of the gate against Uruguay on Thursday in energetic fashion, and Perry Baker struck first off the kickoff to set the tone of the match. He went on to score three more tries, becoming the first man to score four tries in Olympic competition and is tied with former teammates Carlin Isles for most Olympic career tries with nine. Lucas Lacamp found the try zone on the wing, and Stephen Tomasin hit four conversions to bring the points tally to 33.
Comments from Perry Baker after tying the try record:
"At the end of the day, it's not about me, it's about the team. If you look at those tries, every one came from someone doing their job, and my job is just trying to finish for those guys. That's what it's about. It's a team effort all the way around. It comes from a team effort and those guys always trying to find a way to free me away."
The USA needed the same energy heading into their quarterfinal against Australia. But they couldn't find their connections, and easy mistakes on passing and line outs gave Australia the opportunities they needed to put up 18 points and book their ticket to the semifinals, sending the USA to the 5-8 placement rounds.
Game play continues Saturday, July 27, with the 5th place semifinal against Ireland at 9 am ET, live on Peacock.
Comments from Head Coach Mike Friday:
"That was a full on battle and unfortunately whilst we played like gladiators in defense, too many silly possession errors never allowed us to get into the game and enabled Australia to build pressure. The boys character and grit to keep fighting for everything was first class and is not in question and at times we deserved more than we were given but that is sevens rugby. We are sorry and disappointed for all the USA supporters that we couldn’t push into the medal matches for them. We will have to work through the disappointment this next 36 hours to pick ourselves up and get ready to represent and play Ireland on Saturday."
