It was a good day for both USA teams in Perth.
The USA women won both of their games, and the USA men were almost as good in two nailbiters.
USA Men In Full Drama
Overtime, last-minute tries, and hanging tough. In the end, it’s winning games that matters, but win or lose the USA men’s team showed some improvement.
In their opener against a very good and experienced South Africa team the Eagles came back from a 12-0 deficit to lead 19-12.
Lucas Lacamp popped a snappy offload as he was falling to set up co-captain Will Chevalier. Chevalier then scored a second off a loose ball—that try came off some dogged defensive pressure.
Finally, with South Africa down a man they had space out wide; Lacamp outpaced his man to score in the corner.
However, a pessimist might point out that none of these tries had come by virtue of the USA players breaking a tackle.
A quick tackle-and-poach produced a try for Selvyn Davids to make it 19-17. And then, with time winding down, the USA tried to run out the clock. Clearly they were hoping to bust through out of their 22, but they couldn’t. One quick jackle produced what looked to be a try for Davids only for it to be called back for a clear forward pass.
The Eagles got the ball back, but were at the mercy of South Africa’s speed onto the ball in the tackle. Maybe a little more buddy-ball, or a long kick into touch, would have been better. But things were moving too fast to discuss that.
The BlitzBokke stole the ball again, making it spill out of the tackle, and Ronald Brown was over for the game-winner.
South Africa 24 USA 19
It didn’t get any easier the next time up as the Americans were up against SVNS Series leaders Argentina. The USA certainly seemed to understand that urgency, work rate, and physicality had to be at their highest. A couple of players had ditched their headgear, whether that was because of the rain or as a sort of symbol of determination we don’t know.
The opening sequence was promising, but when Argentina did get the ball back it took a second or two for the Eagles to organize defensively. By then Luciano Gonzalez was in under the posts.
Off the restart a silly hands-in-the-ruck penalty by the USA set up a try for Tomas Elizalde in the corner, and the Pumas led 12-0.
As halftime approached the USA did well to pressure Argentina. A good run from Stephen Tomasin got them into the Argentina half, and then Chevalier skated across the field before popped a one-handed pass to a straight-running Marcus Tupuola, and he galloped in to score.
The message was clear there—can’t break tackles in the middle? Move the tackler.
In the second half the USA was under some pressure after a very poor call on the breakdown (referee saying Tomasin had not rolled when it’s hard to see anyone rolling any faster). But a turnover created by Aaron Cummings eventually led to David Still III getting a touch. Still sidestepped his man into a box and took off and ran 80 meters for a brilliant try to tie it up.
Tomasin slotted the extras and it was 14-12 USA.
Argentina responded immediately with Gonzalez fending off Chevalier and going up the middle. He was dragged down but there were numbers. 19-14 Argentina.
Less that two minutes to go and the USA had work to do. And when they knocked on in their own 22 things looked pretty dire.
But scrumhalf Peter Sio Jr. forced a knock-on in return. The Eagles went to work. Cummings make a break. Then Sio. They tapped on a penalty. The big men popped the ball around and everyone was dead on his feet. It fell to hard-working co-captain Jack Wendling, and the former Central Washington Wildcat charged on, fended off two, and rumbled 50 meters to score with no time left. Somehow Faitala Talapusi missed the kick, however, and it was 19-19—sudden death overtime.
In overtime Argentina got the rub of the green in the breakdown once more. They got to within seven meters but Still, who had been down on the ground seemingly hurt at the end of regulation, made the tackle (with Lacamp) and forced the holding-on penalty.
The Eagles took the lineout, but lost the lineout. Argentina attacked, were clear to score, but were called for a knock-on. The Argentina player kicked the ball before it hit the ground, but that doesn’t matter—as the referee explained, you need to be in control of the ball to kick it.
The rain was coming down hard, now, and the Eagles had a scrum five meters from their own line. They got a penalty, tapped, and worked their way down the field before Cummings ran a switch with Talapusi right on their own 22. Argentina over-committed, and the race was on. Talapusi took a line to the corner and just stayed ahead of his chasers to win the game 24-19.
It was a dramatic end and a nice moment for Talapusi, who knew he could have won the game with the conversion at the end of regulation. It was a wonderful piece of redemption.
Suddenly, this USA team is in contention.
With a bonus-point loss and a win, the USA is currently 2nd in Pool A, but it won’t be easy because they have hosts Australia left. The Aussies are 0-2 but perfectly capable of beating the Eagles—both of their losses have been within a try.
Walk off winner from Tala pic.twitter.com/r8BlrJClYi
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) January 24, 2025
