The USA put Chile to the sword in Saturday's Americas Rugby Championship clash in Fort Lauderdale, running in ten tries to beat the Condors 64-0.

This was the biggest USA blowout since they beat Barbados 91-0 in 2006. Chile were obviously feeling the effects of weekly test matches, as the largely amateur Condors faded late. The USA, for their part, had some very impressive sequences of play, but also got away with a lot of loose and sloppy play against a physically overmatched opponent.

Oddly, though, the USA maul was not the try-scoring weapon it had been in previous games. Chile works very hard to stop the USA maul, and succeeded. But out wide the Americas were much harder to stop.

Colleen McCloskey photos.

The first try came when prop Chris Baumann picked up and powered over from short range. The flyhalf JP Eloff unveiled his shifty feet and blew by and around several tacklers to score in the corner. Then came perhaps the try of the game, as Mike Te'o - who had a superb game at fullback (although he slotted in all over the field) - chased down a kick, allowing debutant Lorenzo Thomas to charge onto the ball, feed Eloff, who set up Nic Edwards for a brilliant run.

Eloff, who had missed two relatively easy kicks, hit the conversion and his confidence grew as the game progressed. Edwards showed exactly why he is well-suited to play 15s, but, unfortunately, he ended up having to leave the game with a worrying knee injury just before halftime. A simple pick-and-go saw hooker Joe Taufete'e score from 15 meters out, and that made it 24-0 at halftime.

With Olive Kilifi in the sin bin for tackling a player in the air (on the same play that saw Edwards injured), the Eagles did not look particularly sharp starting the second half. They made errors and committed penalties, and only some determined tackling kept Chile away from the tryline. But, eventually, they settled down. Thomas made a tackle and ripped the ball free for Luke Hume to grab and pop back to Thomas for his first try - Thomas had only last Saturday been playing for the USA U20s.

Te'o scored two tries, both of them strange - the first because he picked up a loose ball and everyone, including Te'o, stopped expecting a knock-on call. None came, and the former USA U20 star walked in. His next try was a brilliant run that turned into sort of a hopping motion as Te'o suffered a cramp midway through the run. Luke Hume and Chad London also scored, and so did Jake Anderson, racing onto a perfect pass from Eloff after the flyhalf had zipped through a gap.

Eloff was good on seven conversions for a personal hail of 19 points.

Off the scoreboard, flanker Nate Brakeley had an impressive and active day, and No. 8 David Tameilau was a superb runner and tackler, making the back row of Brakeley, Tameilau, and Todd Clever hugely influential. Thomas stepped into a full test match and looked like he'd been there all his life. Te'o was all over the place, while the tight five, especially Brodie Orth, Eric Fry, and Joe Taufete'e, worked well.

But they were also helped by Chile's fatigue, and the Condors' inability to win their lineouts - or even come close.

All of this means a great deal. The USA is now 2-0-1 in the ARC. The 64-point drubbing helps their points difference, which could well become an issue if they want to win the tournament.

As of this writing, Argentina is ahead of Uruguay by three points, and has not scored four tries, yet. and that would mean that the USA will be in 1st place at the end of the day.

The injury story is not good, as Baumann, Edwards, and scrumhalf Tom Bliss all left with injuries.

USA 64

Tries: Baumann, Eloff, Edwards, Taufete'e, Te'o 2, Hume, Thomas, Anderson, London

Convs: Eloff 7

Chile 0

USA Starters 
1. Eric Fry  2. Joseph Taufete'e  3. Chris Baumann  4. Ben Landry  5. Brodie Orth  6. Nate Brakeley  7. Todd Clever (C)  8. David Tameilau  9. Tom Bliss  10. JP Eloff  11. Nic Edwards  12. Chad London  13. Lorenzo Thomas  14. Luke Hume  15. Mike Te'o

16. Mike Sosene-Feagai (on for Taufete'e)
17. Olive Kilifi (on for Baumann)
18. Demecus Beach (on for Kilifi temporary)
19. Alec Gletzer (on for Tameilau)
20. Patrick Blair (on for Landry)
21. Niku Kruger (on for Bliss)
22. Ryan Matyas (on for Te'o)
23. Jake Anderson (on for Edwards)

Chile

1 Claudio Zamorano 2 Tomás Dussaillaint 3 Luis Sepúlveda 4 Felipe Bassaletti 5 Raimundo Piwonka 6 Ignacio Silva 7 Javier Richard 8 Benjamín Soto (cap) 9 Beltrán Vergara 10 Cristian Onetto 11 Humberto Chacaltana 12 Francisco de la Fuente 13 Matías Nordenflycht 14 Matías Contreras 15 Pablo Casas. 

Suplentes: 16 Rodrigo Moya 17 Iñaki Gurruchaga 18 José Tomás Munita 19 Cristobal Niedmann 20 Nikola Bursic 21 Matthieu Manas 22 José Ignacio Larenas 23 Leonardo Montoya.