Updated February 01, 2019 16:11:34

Photo: Eagles coach Mike Friday (left) and captain Madison Hughes (right) are leading a revolution. (ABC News: Chloe Hart)

Rugby has not been part of America's sporting DNA for a very long time, but this year the US rugby sevens team is emerging as a new powerhouse.

Nearly a century ago, the United States won gold in 15-a-side rugby union at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920 and again in Paris four years later. From then until recent years, however, the game has been very much a sporting afterthought compared to American football.

Right now, though, US is tied with Fiji at the top of the Rugby Sevens World Series rankings on 57 points ahead of this weekends' Sydney 7s tournament at the Sydney Showgrounds.

It's been a meteoric rise for the US sevens team, which was on the verge of being relegated from the 15 "core" teams in the World Series just five years ago.

"I am immensely proud of how hard they worked and where they have come from and hopefully where we are going, but we are only three legs in," said head coach, Mike Friday.

"If we are still there at leg nine and ten then I'll be jumping from the rooftops."

The US has placed second in all three finals played so far this year — Dubai, Cape Town, and Hamilton last week.

In Sydney, they are hoping they can go one better, but going from the hunter to the hunted brings an unfamiliar, albeit welcome new challenge to the side.

"You've got a target on your back," Eagles captain Madison Hughes said.

"Everyone wants a piece of you. Stay humble, keep your head down, work hard, remember how you got here and lets just keep going."

The team is on a mission to stay on top at this weekend's Sydney 7's, the fourth leg of the ten-tournament fixture which makes up the World Rugby Sevens Series Championship.

"We have made three finals in a row now so we are hoping to go one better," Hughes said.

"We know there are lots of good teams here in Sydney but we are going to be going into every game confident, feeling good and trying to get the win."

Looking to stop the US from making that last step up to the top step of the podium are the Eagles' fellow series leaders, Fiji.

A perennial sevens superpower, Fiji thrashed the Eagles 38-0 in Hamilton last weekend, a result that improved upon the 29-15 victory in Durban in December to claim its second successive victory over the Eagles.

However, the US did claim the Fijian's scalp in the opening tournament of the season, a fact that has not been forgotten by the Eagles captain.

"They got the better of us the last two times, but we got them at the quarter final in Dubai," Hughes said.

"We know if we execute well we can give them a good game, but Fiji are absolutely world class, some of the offloads they throw, it's hard to play against them."

The rise of rugby in the US

Rugby in the USA has been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years.

Last year, the US started its own domestic 15-a-side rugby union competition, the Major League Rugby (MLR), adding to the number of potential pathways in the sport.

"The MLR will have a massive effect on US rugby and has already, for our team it's about having a stable bunch of guys who are growing into themselves, getting experience and togetherness… we have been able to achieve more consistency," Friday said.

Despite the obvious potential in the sport in the USA, the national 15-a-side team has a long way to go. A hugely promising 30-29 victory over Scotland in June last year was followed up by heavy defeats against the Maori All Blacks (59-22) and a largely second-string Ireland side (57-14) in November.

The US currently sit in 12th spot in the World Rugby rankings, but despite that, Friday — a former England seven's captain who has also coached the Kenyan and English sevens teams — believes the USA has what it takes to go all the way in the smaller-sided version of the sport.

"It would be a great achievement for us, as a tier-two rugby nation, to break the traditional super rugby powers top four on the World Series."

With more investment and an increased professional approach, Friday believes that rugby in the US could become an American staple.

"Hopefully we can raise awareness within the country to help position the sport in high schools so it sits there to complement the super sports that are already there.

"If we can get the high schools to adopt the game and these athletes get exposure from the age of 12-19, if they then go off to college and they chase that American football dream or that basketball dream then they don't make it at 21, 22, to actually then come back to rugby with that [knowledge] makes the transition a lot easier and gives them that credible alternative."

Despite that optimism, Friday admits there is still a long way to go to make the game top of people's lists, starting with school exposure.

"Right now, it's not really there," Friday said.

"We inherit a 23-year-old that wants to try and take up the sport, but he's got no history or background in what it means.

"It's a very difficult proposition and it's something we have to work hard to change.

"To transform the game, the game changer has to be the high school programs, getting the game into the high schools and accepted."

Who are the US Eagles?

Photo: Carlin Isles has been a star performer for the US men's team. (AAP: David Moir)

With few players coming from a traditional rugby-playing background, the US team has attracted a broad range of athletes into its squad.

"Our squad probably typifies the USA population," Friday said. "It's so diverse, we've got a mixture of God knows how many cultures."

"We've got Carlin Isles who's an Olympic transfer athlete, Perry Baker dabbled in NFL … a lot of guys from college football," said Friday.

The NFL, or rather college football athletes who don't quite make the cut for the NFL, could prove to be a rich breeding ground for future rugby stars.

Baker was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011 off the back of some impressive performances for Fairmont State University, but never played in the NFL after suffering a knee injury.

That injury hasn't stopped Baker from excelling on the sevens circuit though, with the 32-year-old notching 179 tries in his 202 game career so far — eighth on the all-time list and the most by an American.

Just behind Baker in the try-scoring stakes is Isles — a former track star who has a 100 metres personal best of 10.24 seconds, which at the time was the 36th-fastest in the USA.

The 29-year-old — who has 146 career tries, 13 of them coming this year — lead the 2018 World Series with 49 tries, and has provided ample highlights thanks to his extraordinary pace.

"He is incredible," Hughes said.

"His speed gives him the headlines, but everyday he is there working so, so hard.

"His contact skills and tackling have improved over the past few years … and I want to go into battle with him everyday."

Hughes, 26, had a more traditional rugby education, developing his talents at the noted rugby union nursery Wellington College, whose extensive list of luminaries includes current England international James Haskell.

Photo: Former track star Carlin Isles scored a series-high 49 tries last season. (AAP: Paul Miller)

Olympic gold the carrot

It is not just the World Series on the line for sevens team this season — this year is the Olympic qualifying year for the Tokyo 2020 games.

The top four teams at the end of the season qualify automatically for Tokyo alongside hosts Japan, with those who miss out subject to a series of regional qualifiers later in the year.

It is the Olympics that has given the sport a significant boost around the world since its inclusion in Rio, where Fiji won its first ever Olympic medal with an emphatic 43-7 victory over Great Britain in the gold medal match.

The USA failed to progress from a group that included eventual champions Fiji and Rugby Championship contenders Argentina in Rio, but promise to provide a much sterner test in Japan next year.

Photo: Fiji claimed gold at the Rio Olympic Games, the nation's first medal of any colour at the Games. (Reuters: Alessandro Bianchi)

The Olympic carrot is a motivation for the US, and the nation's governing body is willing to invest heavily in order to achieve their goal.

In 2012, USA Rugby turned professional, offering 15 sevens players professional contracts.

That number has since expanded to include a 24-strong group of players who train as full time residents at the US Olympic training site just outside of San Diego, California alongside some of the country's top track and field athletes.

"In striving to continually evolve, we've added some fresh blood to the squad, which has provided that energy every environment needs to be successful."

"We are slowly building depth to this program year over year," Friday told the USA Rugby website on Monday.

"While we are still focused on today, we will continue to plan for life after 2020 to maintain the continuity in the program and crack the American Sporting landscape. It is a balancing act but one we are working hard to achieve."

Cracking into the wider American sporting landscape is not going to be easy, but Friday knows that the Eagles can continue to press their case by winning tournaments.

"In terms of where we are trying to reposition the sport so we are commercially viable and able to create longevity, then there's still a number of steps to happen," Friday said.

"But all the time we are winning in America, all the time we are competing, then that's a positive message and gives us the best chance to be successful."

The US will meet France, Kenya and Canada in Pool B of the Sydney tournament. Australia is in Pool D with Argentina, Tonga and South Africa.

Topics: sport, rugby-union, rugby-7, australia, nsw, sydney-2000

First posted January 31, 2019 06:24:16