Both the USA and Kenya are 3-0 after Day 1 in the Men’s SVNS 2 tournament in Nairobi.
As expected, Uruguay provided a bit of a stern test, but the Eagles held on in that game and won comfortably over Belgium and Canada to win all of their Saturday matches.
The SVNS 2 will be three tournaments all with full round-robin schedules for the six teams involved—USA, Canada, Kenya, Belgium, Uruguay, and Germany.
In the opening match for the Eagles, David Still raced over midway through a slow-starting match, but after that the USA team got moving. Pita Vi and Lucas Lacamp both scored before halftime, and Aaron Cummings scored right off the second-half restart.
Lacamp converted and it was 26-0. Tries from Vi and Stephen Tomasin capped it off 40-0.
Next up at Nayayo National Stadium was Uruguay, who were coming off a close loss to the Germans. Still sped in for the first try once again, but this time it was Los Teros with tries either side of halftime, both with Orrin Bizer in the sin bin. That gave Uruguay a 14-5 lead and the Eagles were in a bit of trouble.
But Head Coach Zack Test rang the changes with Will Chevalier, Adam Channel, and Marcus Tupuola coming on the help set up a try for Jake Broselle. Chevalier converted to make it 14-12, and then Vi scampered through to score the game-winner with a minute to go.
USA 17 Uruguay 14.
The Americans wrapped up the day with an impressive 41-7 win over Canada. Lacamp scored four tries and converted three for 26 points on his own. Still, Channel, and Vi also touched down and the USA blew apart a 17-7 halftime lead with four tries in the second half.
Canada will look at their 10 missed tackles (more than the number of tackles made) as a real problem for them.
