The Stripes Boys team made it two-for-two in the Stars & Stripes games at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo. Wednesday morning.

Led by a very cohesive effort and one early momentum-shifting score, the Stripes galloped past a hard-working Stars team 53-20.

The Stars actually started off the game the stronger, and were camped out on the Stripes line in the early going. But the ball squirted out of the ruck at the wrong time for the Stars, and Chayce Pannell (Lake Travis, Texas) swooped in and raced 98 meters to score a superb try. Pannell’s pace was impressive, and the try shook the Stars team somewhat.

After that, the Stripes got their mojo working, and got tries from eventual Stripes MVP for the week Nikko Zuluaga (Naples, Fla.) and scrumhalf Justin Brown (Westlake, Texas), who quick-tapped and did well to stay low and sneak over.

As the game went on the Stars came back somewhat, using No. 8 Ryan LIttlegeorge (Siouxland United, South Sioux City, Neb.) to bust through the line to get things going. Littlegeorge had a quiet first half but was enormous in the second.

In the end, the Stripes finished on a high, and setting up the last try was Andrew Fraczek, (Neuqua, Ill.), who was named game MVP because of his skills, vision, and especially his work rate - as he was instrumental in positive moves throughout the game.

Stripes Head Coach Colin Puriri said he enjoyed the week, and while they had several objectives for the players - keep tries off turnovers down, improved decision-making - but ultimately they wanted to win. This was down to team unity.

“Maybe one of my strengths if forming a family mentality,” said Puriri, who coaches United in Utah. “You’re going to play harder for your family than for anyone else. So they came together well. I was also really impressed with the skill level of these players, and the selectors did an excellent job sending quality skilled players here.”

Stars Head Coach Brendan Keane agreed.

“The guys took some good learning points from the game,” said Keane. “Our effort was good, but we didn’t have our mental game switched on. We gave up that try and that immediately got us trying to force stuff. I thought the players were trying to do something to make the difference, for their team, but they were doing it on their own.”

However, “it was a great experience and USA Rugby took feedback from the coaches last year and made it better. They did a good job selecting the players; you can always improve but it was a good experience.”