The USA Women's Eagles hammered Italy in impressive fashion Saturday afternoon in Nashville, outscoring the Azzurri 28-12 in the first half and 26-12 in the second to win 54-24 in WXV Global Series action.
This marked the second straight win for the Eagles over Italy and their fifth straight test victory (South Africa, ireland, Wales, Italy, and Italy).
Freda Tafuna led all scorers with three tries, but it was a total team effort, with the backs showing some adventure and the forwards finishing things off nicely.
Keia Mae Sagapolu scored two tries, in the first half and debutante Lauryn Carlton scored also.
But it didn't start out well. The Eagles made a series of handling errors and other mistakes in the early going.
Alev Kelter missed touch on a penalty. Bella Vogel was poached on a hard run. And Italy was able to turn those momentum shifts into an impressive try by wing Francesca Granzotto off a wide kick from Emma Stevanin.
Moments later Italy kicked to the corner, and when the Eagles tried to exit, Nina Mason's kick was charged down for a walk-in for Francesca Sgorbini.
Down 12-0 the Eagles seemed to shake that off and refocus.
A snappy run from Vogel got them going and the forwards consolidated before Sagapolu crashed through.
Kelter powered down the line and made an offload to get the Eagles back on the front foot. Vogel was able to collect a pass with one hand and snaked through before Tafuna got them down to the line. And that set up a chance for Sagapolu.
Now the Eagles has the lead at 14-12 and they continued to apply pressure on the Italians.
Hard clearouts by a seres of forward set up another close-in chance and this time it was debutante Lauryn Carlton who took the pass and had a big gap in front of her. Now it was 21-12 and after a massive run from Kelter and an offload, Tafuna thundered through five defenders to score her first.
From 12-0 down the Eagles had move to 28-12 ahead at halftime and Italy had to be wondering what had happened.
