From USA Rugby (Chad Wise and Salty Thompson) LIEGE, Belgium – The Boys High School All-Americans finished their JV tour of Europe Tuesday with a 53-24 defeat of Belgium.

Salty Thompson’s under-17 group will return to the U.S. with a 2-1 record on tour, with Saturday’s 31-8 win against Belgium following an earlier loss to France in Marcoussis.

“I’ll provide the boys with formal evaluations and we’ll look to move on from here,” Thompson said. “This has been a very cooperative, excellent group of boys. They’ve done the U.S. proud. It’s a very respectful group, they worked well with each other, and they stayed on task. They’ve really come through.”

Wing Ryan James scored three tries in Tuesday’s win, which was much closer through 40 minutes than the full time score suggests. The BHSAAs capitalized on a five-meter lineout in the fourth minute of the match to open the scoring, as a driving maul pushed the team over the try line.

Evan Holm intercepted a pass in the sixth minute to extend the lead to 14-0, but Belgium put an end to the scoring streak with a converted try and penalty before the 20th minute. James’ first try of the match and a dot-down from Liam Jimmons bookended a second try from Belgium to bring the halftime score to 26-17.

“We really controlled possession in this game, something we were trying to achieve on this tour,” Thompson said. “We’ve been our own worst enemy at times and this was a great team effort.”

Thompson highlighted the play of several standouts on tour, but controlling the field for the BHSAAs was flyhalf Anton Grigoriou, who successfully converted five of eight tries in Tuesday’s match. Fullback Patrick Madden, unavailable for Saturday’s match due to an injury sustained in training in Belgium, was also instrumental in controlling the backs.

The BHSAAs pulled away from the host with tries from scrum half Ruben de Haas and James and a Grigoriou penalty before Belgium’s next score, and Ian Crilly brought the final score to 53-24 with a try in the 73rd minute.

Even though a sizable loss opened the tour, the BHSAAs worked hard to prepare themselves for the two matches in Liege.

“The weather was dry, which helped,” Thompson said. “It had been wet and muddy and cold on tour up to this point, but I think the dry conditions favored us. We were able to gel.

“We saw some really good connections between our forwards and our backs and found a pattern that worked for us. I was quite impressed.”

The “varsity” BHSAAs, or under-18-eligible squad, will go on a tour this summer much like the tour in 2014 that saw Thompson’s team compete in the Rugby 4 Nations Cup in South America.

“There’s a core group of this team that has done really well and will contend for selection to the summer tour. Then we’ve got some returners who will be under-17s next year.

“There are more years of development for those boys.”

USA Rugby Boys High School All-Americans | Belgium
1. Owen Duvall
2. Keanu Andrade
3. David Aniuu
4. Liam Jimmons
5. Leki Fotu
6. Beau Falco
7. Zach Heisterkamp
8. Ian Crilly
9. Ruben de Haas
10. Anton Grigoriou
11. Ryan James
12. Mikaele Kruse
13. Tomasi Tonga
14. Evan Holm
15. Patrick Madden

USA Rugby Boys High School All-Americans | Reserves
16. Maxwell Nail
17. Dillon Shotwell
18. Sean Dowling
19. Ian Abbott
20. Sosefo Mailangi-Ray
21. Soh Nakayama
22. Marcos young
23. Quinn Perry
24. William Vakalahi
25. Jack White
26. Nathan Watts