Seth Halliman threw a sublime long pass to Perry Baker to allow the USA wing to score his 5th try of Day One of the Canada 7s in Vancouver, BC, but that single example of what could be was only what could have been, as it finished off a 17-5 loss to New Zealand.

Having played consistently well through the first two games of the day, the Eagles ran into a New Zealand team that either was extremely quick on the tackle-release-poach sequence, or was getting away with something. A stern look from USA Coach Mike Friday hinted at the latter. Still New Zealand defended extremely well, got the turnovers, and scored the tries to win the pool.

The USA finishes second in Pool D at 2-1 and gets a Cup Quarterfinal date with series leaders Fiji at 11:08 Sunday morning (remember, clocks spring forward an hour tonight!).

"We weren't quite as efficient as we needed to be, and we were making life difficult for us in the breakdown, and they did a good job," said USA captain Madison Hughes. "We weren't consistent in all areas. We were a bit off in a bunch of things - the breakdowns being one and the lines we were running."

But, the first two games were very good.

"We've got the Fijians tomorrow, and tomorrow's another day," said Hughes. "I like playing Fiji. I think we do a good job sticking to our plan against them and making them throw the offloads - maybe one more than they want to. Having said that Fiji is a really good team and we'll have to be at our best to beat them. We were disappointed not to beat them in Vegas."

Also interesting Saturday was the performance of Canada, which blew a lead against Wales, but beat Australia on a late try and conversion - to a thunderous cheer from the more than 28,000 fans at BC Place. But in the end they fell short because Australia thrashed Wales, leaving the Canada too much to do to get into the top eight on points difference.  They finished 2-1, but will be in the Bowl. 

 

SOUTH AFRICA 43 - 0 SCOTLAND 

ARGENTINA 35 - 5 BRAZIL

FIJI 38 - 5 SAMOA

KENYA 43 - 5 PORTUGAL

USA 42 - 14 FRANCE

NEW ZEALAND 7 - 0 ENGLAND

AUSTRALIA 43 - 5 RUSSIA

WALES 26 - 19 CANADA

SOUTH AFRICA 26 - 7 BRAZIL

ARGENTINA 7 - 19 SCOTLAND

FIJI 62 - 0 PORTUGAL

KENYA 19 - 26 SAMOA

USA 17 - 12 ENGLAND

NEW ZEALAND 24 - 10 FRANCE

WALES 52 - 0 RUSSIA

AUSTRALIA 12 - 14 CANADA

SCOTLAND 33 - 0 BRAZIL

SOUTH AFRICA 27 - 0 ARGENTINA

SAMOA 43 - 7 PORTUGAL

FIJI 24 - 19 KENYA

FRANCE 12 - 14 ENGLAND

USA 5 - 17 NEW ZEALAND

AUSTRALIA 49 - 14 WALES

RUSSIA 12- 29  CANADA