The USA men's national 15s team has qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia after a 29-13 defeat of Samoa Sunday afternoon at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver.
This game was for 5th in the Pacific Nations Cup and also doubled as the final qualification decider for the teams in that competition. Samoa will now look to a two-match series with Chile, starting in Salt Lake City next week. Tickets still available>>. This match was much closer and more tense than the score might indicate. Only in the final 10 minutes were the Eagles able to put it away.
For the third game in a row, a player had to leave the game early because of injury, forcing a reserve who expected, perhaps, to play 20 minutes to go on much earlier. In this case, flyhalf Christopher Hilsenbeck had to leave in the 15th minute for a Head Injury Assessment that he ultimately failed. Luke Carty came on to replace him, and ended up having a huge game.
Interestingly enough, because this had happened to Cory Daniel against Canada and Makeen Alikhan against Japan, GRR asked USA captain Jason Damm about this issue and what the mindset for a player is.
"It's a tough balance sometimes because you don't want to be sitting on the bench amped up the whole time, because then you'll sort of mentally burn out," said Damm. "But you want to be ready and you need to stay focused and in the moment. There is certainly a shot of adrenaline that you get when your number's called to sub in. You've been prepping you for this moment, so just being confident in your preparation, and knowing your role, and knowing that you're ready to rise to the occasion."
Carty certainly struck that balance.
Circling Boxers in the Ring
Both teams played conservative rugby early on to see who might be a little too tense and who might make mistakes. The Eagles wanted to rain high balls down on the Samoans, and, for the most part, Samoa handled those kicks well.
Within five minutes, however, the Eagles were penalized (Jack Iscaro was rolling away "wrong" according to Damien Schneider). Flyhalf Rodney Iona put the long-range kick over sweetly for a 3-0 Samoan lead.
Samoa's plan was to be physical in contact and over-stress the USA defense, hoping to create a gap in the middle. It seemed to work well. The Eagles tackling was very strong and consistent, however Samoa was able to work a loop move and find space down the sideline. Desperate cover work from Rufus McLean and Mitch Wilson prevented a try.
The original plan worked nicely when prop Aki Seiuli broke through. He had just Wilson to beat and that was a significant weight disparity, but Wilson was up for it. The Eagles were, ultimately, penalized however, but Iona's much simpler kick hit the post.
It was just after this that Hilsenbeck had to leave the field. Samoa was still on the front foot and Iona kicked a brilliant touchfinder to set up his forwards for a lineout and maul. The USA defense was excellent, stopped the maul, and after six well-executed double tackles. the Americans got the ball back when Marno Redelinghuys forced a holding-on penalty.
The USA moved on from there. A box kick from scrumhalf Ruben de Haas was chased well by Cary Daniel and Carty. Daniel made the tackle and Carty was over quickly to force another penalty, and that put the USA in the Samoan 22. There followed a very good peice of refereeing, as Schneider initially called Samoa for tackling USA center Dom Besag in the air. But on TMO review he saw that this was Besag jumping to catch a pass just as the Samoan defender was coming in to tackle. It would have been a very harsh penalty indeed, and Schneider decided to reverse his call, and simply give the USA a scrum since they had held the ball when he blew his whistle.
It turned out OK for the Americans as they kept the pressure on, worked their way to the tryline, and when Samoa was offside, the Eagles spun it wide from de Daas to Carty to Toby Fricker for the opening try of the match.
Up now 5-3 the USA seemed determined to give the lead right back. De Haas had a box kick charged down. They gave up penalties they didn't need to give up, and eventually Iona was good on a penalty to regain the lead for Samoa at 6-5.
We were now late into the first half and after the USA scrum forced a penalty, Carty put over a well-taken kick to nudge his side ahead.
Once again the USA helped put themselves under pressure. Running back to cover a kick prop Pono Davis was called for obstruction and yellow carded. Iona missed the kick but Samoa was still on the doorstep. Somehow halftime came without further scoring.
