The High School All Americans U17s defeated the Belgium U17s 31-8 Saturday in the second match of their three-game tour of France and Belgium.

The Americans were captained by lock forward Leki Fotu (Herriman HS), who also scored, as the team rebounded from a tough 65-6 loss to the French U17s.

But scrumhalf Soh Nakayama of Greenwich, HS said the team did not get discouraged by the loss.

“It was the first international match for most of the players, and we learned a lot from it,” Nakayama said. “We were able to find mistakes and discuss what to improve for the game against Belgium today.”

Head Coach Salty Thompson made several changes to the squad that faced France, but that didn’t make any difference, said the scrumhalf. The team as a whole had been working on improving as a unit (so much so, that when their bus broke down earlier this week, the forwards all disembarked to work on lineouts by the roadside).

“Even though we had a different set of forwards and backs, we were all in the same page with our plays,” said Nakayama.

Next up for the HSAA U17s is a rematch with Belgium on Tuesday, April 8.