'I thought they were so impressive': Bydwell taking positives from Dubai 'disappointment'

Emilie Bydwell’s USA Women’s Sevens side were left “disappointed” with their third-place finish in Pool A last weekend.

The result meant that the side had to settle for a fifth-place finish at the first leg of the 2025/26 HSBC SVNS season Dubai, despite having registered wins against the Black Ferns Sevens and France in pool play.

Ultimately it was a 19-7 loss to Fiji in their opening game of the tournament that proved to be the squad’s undoing.

“It’s really good for our team to have the opportunity to play against the best seven teams six times,” Bydwell said. “Especially with how young they are and how young we are in terms of what we are trying to do.

“I think the girls were disappointed after the France game to find out that they weren’t going forward.

“I took it pretty hard, mostly because I thought they were so impressive after having lost to Fiji, to turn around and pull off the New Zealand victory and a pretty dominant France performance.”

Ahead of their second stop of the season in Cape Town, Bydwell was clearly enthused by her team’s efforts.

Before jetting off to the UAE the 40-year-old named a relatively inexperienced squad, with three debutants in the form of Erica Coulibaly, Nalu Liufau and Tahna Wilfley.

During the offseason, in which time former Great Britain Men’s head coach Tony Roques joined as an assistant coach, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games bronze medallists have adjusted their style of play.

To bed in their new systems an extended squad travelled to Australia to test themselves against the Australia Women’s Sevens and the Black Ferns.

After just one leg of the season Bydwell is pleased with how her team have progressed in a short space of time.

This weekend in Cape Town the side have been drawn in Pool A with Fiji, Great Britain and New Zealand.

“We went to Australia for preseason and we played New Zealand there and Australia – and we beat New Zealand but we were just trying to be quite process-oriented,” Bydwell said.

“I don’t know how much people notice, but we are playing quite a different way than we’ve played in the past.

“I was just really curious, nervous, whatever the word it to see how it would translate into the World Series.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised, but I definitely was really happy over the course of the whole weekend to see that way that we’ve chosen to take the way we’re going to play the game.”