Eagles do Just Enough vs Spain
Eagles do Just Enough vs Spain
Madrid, Spain—The USA Men's 15s team held on for a tough 26-23 victory over Spain Saturday in Madrid, overcoming an early deficit and a late Spanish surge to end their November tour 3-0.
The three-match November series included close wins over Portugal and Spain, and an emphatic victory over Tonga. The Spain match should have been more heavily in the USA's favor, but they squandered a couple of prime try-scoring chances, and gave up a late try that made the game much closer than it needed to be.
“The things that we need to remember are important in test rugby are discipline and clean exits," said USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence. "Those two things - we were clean in the first half and in control and when we weren’t we were under pressure late in the game.”
Still, overall it has been a good 2024 for the USA, a year that included some key improvements.
“The team grew tremendously throughout the year," said Lawrence. "We started with a really young group in terms of caps, and you can see the incremental growth and both their game knowledge and accuracy, but also resiliency toward the end of the year. It’s important now that we work with the players on putting themselves in a good position to perform for their professional clubs when they go back. So in the short term that’s what the focus will be is that we want the players to go back and be afforded the minutes they need as international players in their professional teams. During the professional season we will work with those teams on co-development plans of their players.”
The match started with early discipline issues for the USA, with captain Greg Peterson receiving a yellow card for head-to-head contact. Spain was able to score a converted try and a penalty to take an early 10-0 lead.
But the USA got back on the front foot. A penalty led to a lineout close to the Spain tryline, and after the forwards got closer the ball was sent wide quickly where wing Nate Augspurger somersaulted in for the try.
This was quickly followed up with a bruising run from center Tavite Lopeti, and with AJ MacGinty accurate with his kicked, it was 14-10 at halftime.
The second half saw Spain seeming to score in the first couple of minutes on an impressive run down the sideline and kick ahead. However, the USA cover was there enough to force a slight knock-on, seen by the TMO. No try.
Soon thereafter it was the Eagles on the attack, and as they pressure inside the Spain 22, a loose pass ended up in scrumhalf Ruben de Haas's hands. With nothing on, he quickly popped a kick wide and wing Mark O'Keeffe chased it down to score. That made it 19-10. Spain would answer with a penalty goal, but midway through the second half the Eagles would get the key score.
Some nifty ballhandling out of contact got them close and then MacGinty sent a delayed short pass to Lopeti, who crashed over. They needed the TMO to confirm, but the try was good and MacGinty added the extras for a 26-13 lead.
The final portion of the game seemed to show a little tour fatigue for the USA. Spain scored on a good series of phases, and and then added another try, but neither was converted, and the Eagles eventually were able to close the game out with the forwards pounding away until time expired.
It wasn't beautiful, but it did the job. Touring and being out-of-country can be very tough. Getting the players switched on but also able to switch off is crucial on these trips. In this game, the Eagles performed well for about 50 minutes, and held on doggedly the rest of the time.
USA 26
Tries: Augspurger, Lopeti 2, O'Keeffe
Convs: MacGinty 3
Spain 23
Tries: Saleta, NIeto, Cian
Convs: Vinuesa
Pens: Vinuesa 2
