The Eagles managed to beat Canada despite getting three yellow cards, a fact that rankled somewhat with USA Coach Mike Tolkin who pointed out in his post-match comments that his team had been down to 14 men for 30 minutes.

It was actually more than 30 minutes as at least one of those players had to wait for a long period of play to stop to get back on the field. We at Goff Rugby Report had a closer look at the three incidents, and it seemed like one of the cards was obvious, one was fair, sort of, and one should not have been given.

The obvious one was AJ MacGinty, who chased his own high ball and upended wing Jeff Hassler while the Canadian wing was still in the air. Hassler was lucky he didn't land on his head. It was a dumb and pointless penalty and deserved a card. It's just a good thing for the Eagles that MacGinty was able to return to the field to kick the winning drop goal.

That was the last of the three sin-bins suffered by the USA. The first was when Greg Peterson found his leg held by Brett Beukeboom, who was sitting on the ground, and Peterson was unable to follow the play. Peterson turned around and thumped Beukeboom on the back of the neck. It was the sort of thing you see in a hockey game all the time, and in fact the sort of thing you see in rugby internationals a lot, resulting in the referee telling the combattants to settle down. Peterson deserved a yellow card - we're just saying that a lot of times refs just give a stern talking-to, and leave it at that. (Also, Beukeboom deserved it.)

And now for the last one. We actually asked Danny Barrett about this. In the play, Canada had the ball and was passing down the backline. Hassler came into the line as a decory runner, and didn't get the pass. Instead he and Barrett collided. Hassler crashed to the ground, and Barrett fell also, but Barrett got up and kept playing, while Hassler curled up into a ball and waited for help.

"He was coming  at me and I wasn’t coming for him, and I kind of won the draw and he went down and they carded me," said Barrett. "It’s unfortunate."

Yes it is unfortunate, because the card should never have been given. A decoy runner is someone who is potentially going to get the ball. Defenses have to be ready to tackle those players. Barrett was covering the line, and Hassler came right at him and didn't attempt to pull out of the contact. saw Hassler just at the last second has to behave as if he has some thought of getting the ball. Hassler didn't. And it was the Canadian wing who went down with some dramatic flourishes, and it became a case of the player less damaged got the penalty.

- Additional Reporting by Owen Goff