It was a disappointing result for the High School All Americans against Italy’s U18s if only for the fact that they were leading well into the match, and had opportunities to win.

 

But 20-9 is not a terrible scoreline, even if it flattered the young Azzurri a little. So it’s going to be that on Saturday the Americans will play Uruguay to see who finished 3rd in the Cuatro Naciones M18 in Rio Cuarto, while Italy plays Argentina for 1st place.

 

Tuesday was a rest day for the players, as they took a trip to downtown Rio Cuarto. It’s not a huge city, but it’s a college town with some interesting things to see and good food. The players did some shopping, some sightseeing, and got to meet some local students.

 

Then it was time to get back to the hotel and an interesting ritual, as they switched roommates. The coaching staff is making sure things don’t get stale, and that players mingle more, so room assignments changed.

 

 

All in time for two big training days on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday’s two sessions will be the final full-on sessions for the players, as Friday will be a captain’s run. Several of the players are familiar with Uruguay’s game. They will maul as much as possible and it will be up to the forwards to handle that.

 

“It’s the same with any Eagle assembly at any level, it’s time together,” said Head Coach Salty Thompson. “Because of that, we can’t go into any game assuming we will win. If we don’t start well in a game, we can be in trouble. Against Uruguay, we can’t just assume that because that’s the game we need to win, that we’ll win it. If we have the same appetite, same flow, and same commitment that we had in that first half against Argentina, we will do well.”

 

Thompson said Michael Engelbrecht has done a tremendous job with the defense, and Paule Barford the same with set piece. But the players have to show the commitment to doing some of the rough stuff against Uruguay. They will have a plan for the maul, and a plan to handling their kicking game, but also they will need to execute when on offense.

 

Latest Cuatro Naciones Standings:

Cuatro Naciones M18	W	L	T	Pf	Pa	Pd
Argentina	2	0	0	66	20	46
Italy	2	0	0	47	26	21
USA	0	2	0	22	55	-33
Uruguay	0	2	0	24	58	-34