With a little bit of perspective, and with only a couple of days to go before the USA clashes with Japan, we can look at how the Eagles did in their first game of 2015.

And, of course, it takes years and years of observing international rugby games to say that they played better in the second half (13 points for, none against) than they did in the first (21-3 against). What happened? Well overall the Eagles controlled their kicking game a little better, controlled the tempo at the gain line a little better, got a few calls their way after captain Chris Wyles complained that Samoa was diving over the ball (Wyles was right, referee JP Doyle said he wasn't, but the ref's actions supported Wyles).

And, finally, they got some better go-forward. We'll touch on this and more with some lovely photos from David Barpal (click on any photo you want to enlarge.)

Front Row. Nice job Eric Fry (near right) - defense, scrum, running, all pretty darned good. Mate Moeakiola was knocked out of the game early, and when Titi Lamositele (far right) came in on short notice the scrum was much, much better. Lamositele also scored the USA's only try. We might look on this game as a watershed moment for him.
Second Row - Hayden Smith (near right) is a tough, smart, hard-working lock. Greg Peterson (far right) had some good moments, especially with the ball. But both were exposed on cutback runs by Samoa. Maybe a comment on their mobility, or maybe on Samoa's ability to identify a matchup. We'd like to see better open-field tackling from the second row.
Back Row - Danny Barrett (near right) has been a monster all year, so it's no surprise he was the same on Saturday. Cam Dolan (far right) did well enough, but like a lot of players coming back from injury, there's also that fear of re-injuring. We'll see more of him.
John Quill (near right, second row) was all over the place and probably, once again, led the team in tackles. He's in the shot with Andrew Durutalo and Scott LaValla. We will talk about them below, but Durutalo is in very good form and a good option at flanker,
Halfbacks - Shalom Suniula's (near right) passes beeded to be more aggressive - in front of the man, not to the man. He left some forwards flat-footed. He's still explosive, and came close to breaking one free.
AJ MacGinty (near right) was, in the second half, brilliant. He reminded our writers of former Irish out-half Ollie Campbell - frail and pale and looking like you could snap him in two, but wiry, brave, and a snappy runner. When he stopped booting the ball to Samoa's prime runners, and stopped chipping over the top on the run (obviously that works for him at Life), things went well. We will discuss Mike Petri below, but he was very, very good.
Centers - This is a crucial position if the Eagles are going to score tries. Thretton Palamo (near right) didn't connect with MacGinty's passes, and didn't really break the gain line. Timing? Maybe. Seamus Kelly (far right) was good, but didn't get a lot of running chances. Defensively he, like everyone else, held on for dear life, mostly well.
Wings - Taku Ngwenya (near right) had one big run around the edge, but could break free for the try the USA needed so badly. He was a little in trouble on defense - he's a big guy, but the USA needed a very big guy. Blaine Scully (far right) did the kick-and-chase thing twice ... not sure why on one of them. He needs to challenge tacklers more. Also, if you were wondering if the late tackle on him was late, look at the photo. He has kicked the ball, and Tuilagi is nowhere near him.
Fullback - No issues for Chris Wyles as captain. He handled the ref nicely. He was up-and-down as a player, making a couple of errors, and being steamrolled on the wing, but also making some key defensive plays. Kicking from the hand was very good.
Subs - The subs overall injected enthusiasm and made the USA team better. We discussed Lamositele above. Durutalo is a grafting, poaching #7 and pretty good at it. Petri was better than Suniula at digging for the ball, and passing so runners could go at pace. There was a marked difference. Scott LaValla  was really strong in the things he's good at - lineout, cleaning up trash, making tackles, and taking negative situations and making them positive. Andrew Suniula did a good job concentrating on ball control and running with power in difficult circumstances. Zach Test showed how his 7s passing skills and ability to beat defenders and mix it up might work quite nicely in 15s.
Set Piece - The lineout fuinctioned very nicely, and on defense they didn't let Samoa really launch from there. The scrum had some early dicey moments, and one penalty called from that was the wrong call, but in the second half it was better.
Intangibles -  Well they didn't back down, and they didn't fold, so that was nice. Perhaps the key issue was impatience, but you can see comments on that here.