USA v Canada Rematch at Chula Vista
After losing to Canada 39-5 on Tuesday, a young USA Women’s national team will take on Canada for a second time Saturday at Chula Vista.
This game will kick off at 6pm ET, 3pm PT, and will be broadcast on The Rugby Channel behind the pay wall.
Head Coach Pete Steinberg has made five changes to the team from Tuesday. Molly Kinsella replaces Alycia Washington at lock; Sara Parsons replaces Nicole Strasko at openside flanker; Annakaren Pedraza replaces Joanne Fa’avesi at scrumhalf; Nicole Heavirland replaces Megan Foster at flyhalf; and Ryan Carlyle comes in at outside center, with Alev Kelter (Tuesday's lone try-scorer) moving to inside, and Sylvia Braaten sitting out.
USA v Canada Only Pre-WRWC Chance
USA and Canada is set for a Saturday afternoon women's 15s test match at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center.
The game will kick off at 3pm PT, and will be an hugely valuable warmup for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup in Ireland.
The sad fact is this will probably be the only official test match for the USA before the big event in Ireland. On Tuesday, the two teams will meet in a matchup that will be closed to the public. But Saturday's game will be shown live on The Rugby Channel and will be open to the public ($10 admission).
USA to Host Georgia
LAFAYETTE, Colo.(USA Rugby Press Release) – The 12th-ranked national rugby union team of Georgia will visit Kennesaw, Ga., for a June 17 test match against the USA Men's Eagles as part of the Emirates Airline Summer Series.
The Eagles' second test match of the Emirates Airline Summer Series – following the June 10 matchup with Tier One Ireland at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. – will be held at Fifth Third Bank Stadium at Kennesaw State University. Pre-sale of tickets will begin Wednesday, March 22, at 10 am ET, lasting until 11:59 pm ET Thursday. To receive notifications of pre-sale and general on-sale ticketing information, sign up for the USA Rugby Ticket Pre-Sale Email List. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning Friday, March 24, at 10 am ET.
USA 4th in Vancouver - Column
Day Two out of five competition days covering nine days on the calendar isn't easy for any international 7s team, and the USA did pretty well, considering.
The Eagles ended up 1-2 in Vancouver on Sunday, winning that crucial quarterfinal game to make the semis, but losing the next two to finish fourth.
Eagles 3-0 in Vancouver
The USA Men’s 7s team is 3-0 after Day One at the Canada 7s at BC Place in Vancouver.
Unlike in recent tournaments, when the Eagles would put in ten minutes of strong rugby, and the occasional four minutes of trouble, the USA team was fairly consistent on the turf at BC Place, hammering Japan, defeating their bete noir, France, and then dominating Australia to close out the day.
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Eagles - We Weren't Sure We'd Done It
The USA Men’s 15s team only had to score a converted try at the end of their game with the Argentina XV to win the Americas Rugby Championship.
They did that, putting David Tameilau over under the posts and having Ben Cima slot to kick to get a bonus-point tie, just enough to win it all. The thing is, nobody knew that was going to be enough.
"Honestly, I think a few of us thought they only had 25 points and thought a converted try would win it,” said No. 8 Cam Dolan. “The scoreboard was behind us in the 2nd half. So, we never really looked at it; we just battled until the final whistle.”
Center Bryce Campbell was unsure, too.
Eagle Men 3rd in Vegas
Day three started for the Eagles with a shot at the Cup as they faced South Arica.
While the Blitzbokke have been almost unbeatable all day. Well, they looked beatable against the Eagles on US soil, and only a very harsh call at the end of the game led to a South Africa win.
USA Women 4th, Work to Do
Saturday was Day Two of the USA 7s for the United States women’s team, and they started it by getting a little revenge, and ended it understanding they still have a ways to go.
The Quarterfinals saw the USA take on Ireland, a team they lost to on Friday. IN this second matchup between the two, Ireland’s penchant for not releasing the ball and not releasing the tackled player was somewhat egregious. They were penalized, for sure, but not enough, and someone should have seen a yellow card.
USA Men 7s to Semis
The USA Men are in the semifinals of the USA 7s in Las Vegas after a resurgent performance by on Maka Unufe.
Cima Talks Kicking, Wind, and Winning
The USA Men’s 15s team seemed to have their game against the Argentina XV in hand, and then they didn’t.
Two yellow cards and two penalty tries turned a 15-3 lead into a 17-15 deficit … a deficit that ballooned to 27-15 before the Argentineans were done.
“We tried to come out firing in the second half but they got them best of us in the first 20,” said fullback and former Gonzaga HS star Ben Cima. “We ramped it up in the last 20 and we able to pull it out for the win.”
The game itself was played in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, located on the Atlantic coast in what is known as the Roaring 40s, a band of high winds in the Southern Hemisphere. Certainly those winds were in evidence this week. Cima had to kick in that wind and it wasn’t easy, even the final conversion in front of the posts (which he nailed). But the Eagle fullback wasn’t fazed.
Eagles Tie Argentina, Win ARC
In something of a shock result, the USA has won the Americas Rugby Championship, taking the team's first major 15s international tournament win since the 1924 Olympics.
The Eagles tied Argentina XV 27-27, scoring a try after the final hooter had sounded. A tie would have made for an Argentina win on points difference, except that the Eagles scored four tries, and Argentina only three. Thus the USA wins the tournament thanks to the extra bonus point.
Here are the standings (minus Uruguay v Chile to be completed):
Barrett Leads USA to 2-0
The USA 7s Men's World Series tournament started off very nicely for the Eagles, with two victories against relatively low-level opponents.
Samoa is struggling to find their rugby voice, and Chile is the 16th team for the event (the only team at the tournament that doesn't appear in every event), and rightfully so the Eagles powered past both.
Danny Barrett rumbled, stumbled, and powered to three tries against Samoa, much to the delight of the crowd. He scored on a quick tap. He capped off a nice movement on the wing, lowering the shoulder on his tackler. And then he scored after a period of team play and burst through three attempted tackles in the space of five meters. That last try was made possible by some lovely sidestepping from Folau Niua and an over-the-shoulder pass from Stephen Tomasin. The former Cal All American led the USA to a 26-5 victory.
Augspurger Leads USA in ARC Winner-Take-All
A little over a year ago a very green USA team tied a pretty young Argentina XV 35-35 in the opening round of the new-look Americas Rugby Championship.
That tie set up the USA for a run at the title, a run that faltered with two losses in South America. This year, both teams enter this final weekend with a shot at winning it all. Both are 4-0, and the winner of this weekend's clash in at Estadio Municipal in Comodoro Rivadavia in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina.
Whoever wins will win the ARC. If there's a tie, then if one team earns a four-try bonus point and the other does not, then the bonus-point winner will win the ARC. If there is a tie and a tie in bonus points, then Argentina will win on points difference.
Augspurger Relishes Chance to be Captain
Nate Augspurger made the decision after not making the Olympic Games first 12 to leave the USA 7s program, return to the Old Blue club, and concentrate on 15s.
Funny how life works out. The disappointment of not playing in Rio fueled Augspurger to work harder to make the 15s Eagles, which he did. And then, weirdness upon weirdness, he was moved from scrumhalf to wing. A demotion? A commentary that he wasn't doing the job in the #9 jersey? Not hardly, especially when Head Coach John Mitchell made him the captain last week.
