2015–16 United States national rugby sevens team season

The United States national rugby sevens team season began the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series by "shocking the world" when it defeated New Zealand for the first time at 2015 Dubai Sevens.^[1] The United States team beat the 12-time World Series champion in pool play and again in the tournament's third-place match^[2] before a third victory in as many matches in the 2015 South Africa Sevens Plate Semifinal.^[3] The U.S. once again finished the season in sixth, tying its best ever finish. The previous season's scoring records were broken again, as Perry Baker notched 48 tries and Madison Hughes scored 331 points.

World Rugby Sevens Series

Leg	Date	Finish	Record (W-L-D)	Leading Try Scorer	Leading Points Scorer	Dream Team selection
Dubai	December 2015	3rd	4 – 2	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (6)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (30)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker
South Africa	December 2015	6th	3 – 3	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (5)	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (59)	—
New Zealand	January 2016	T-7th	2 – 3	Isles, CarlinCarlin Isles (4)	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (21)	—
Australia	February 2016	T-7th	2 – 3	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (5)	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (30)	—
United States	March 2016	4th	2 – 2 – 1	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (5)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (25)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker
Canada	March 2016	6th	3 – 3	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (8)	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (48)	Martin Iosefo
Hong Kong	April 2016	6th	4 – 2	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (7)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (35)	–
Singapore	April 2016	10th	3 – 3	Test, ZackZack Test (6)	Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (34)	–
France	May 2016	11th	2–3	Test, ZackZack Test (5)	Test, ZackZack Test (25)	–
England	May 2016	3rd	3–2–1	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (8)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker (40)	Baker, PerryPerry Baker

Players

World Series

Leading U.S. players (2015–16 WS season)

Player	Matches	Caps	Tackles	Tries	Points
Perry Baker	55	10	78	48	240
Folau Niua	55	10	87	11	55
Madison Hughes	54	10	118	23	331
Zack Test	49	9	89	22	110
Danny Barrett	42	8	25	6	30
Garrett Bender	39	8	67	4	20
Martin Iosefo	37	7	31	10	50
Ben Pinkelman	36	7	42	8	40
Maka Unufe	34	7	31	10	50
Nate Augspurger	32	9	25	3	35
Carlin Isles	27	5	30	16	80
Thretton Palamo	23	6	12	2	10
Matai Leuta	19		21	2	10

Updated: May 23, 2016

Olympics squad

The table below shows the U.S. roster assembled for the most recent tournament. The statistics (events, points, and tries) refer to statistics generated in World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments.^[4]

Current squad (2016 Summer Olympics) Player Age Events Points Tries Test, ZackZack Test 27 60 691 137 Hughes, MadisonMadison Hughes (c) 24 21 665 49 Niua, FolauFolau Niua 31 38 380 39 Isles, CarlinCarlin Isles 27 28 380 76 Baker, PerryPerry Baker 30 17 335 67 Wyles, ChrisChris Wyles 33 13 270 54 Unufe, MakaMaka Unufe 25 21 185 37 Barrett, DannyDanny Barrett 26 21 162 32 Durutalo, AndrewAndrew Durutalo 29 28 127 25 Iosefo, MartinMartin Iosefo 26 11 60 12 Bender, GarrettGarrett Bender 25 22 55 11 Pinkelman, BenBen Pinkelman 22 5 30 6 Ebner, NateNate Ebner 27 2 10 2

Training squad (2016 Summer Olympics) Player Age Events Points Tries Suniula, ShalomShalom Suniula 28 41 328 20 Edwards, NickNick Edwards 32 30 265 53 Swiryn, KevinKevin Swiryn 31 13 180 36 Holder, WillWill Holder 25 6 57 11 Tiberio, PeterPeter Tiberio 27 16 42 8 Palamo, ThrettonThretton Palamo 28 17 35 7 Augspurger, NateNate Augspurger 26 13 32 2 Leuta, MataiMatai Leuta 26 6 20 4 Tomasin, StephenStephen Tomasin 22 4 5 1 Thompson, BrettBrett Thompson 26 18 0 0 Blair, PatPat Blair 26 8 0 0 Smith, ConRoyConRoy Smith 24 0 0 0 Sok, JoeyJoey Sok 22 0 0 0

References

1. "USA rugby sevens team shocks the world, defeats New Zealand", Washington Post, Jake Russell, December 4, 2015.
2. "U.S. ends Dubai trip with second defeat of New Zealand, third place title" Archived December 22, 2015, at the Wayback Machine., USA Rugby, December 5, 2015.
3. "U.S. continues roll over New Zealand in Cape Town Plate Semifinal" Archived December 22, 2015, at the Wayback Machine., USA Rugby, December 13, 2015.
4. "USA Rugby Names 2016 U.S. Olympic Men's Rugby Team", July 18, 2016.