The USA will not be playing in Rugby World Cup 2023.
The Eagles tied Portugal in Dubai in the Final Qualifier Tournament, and with Portugal having the better Points Difference in the series of games, it is the Portuguese Lobos who will go to France, not the USA.
The Eagles didn't not execute consistently, making basic skill errors and taking bad options, and that's how the game ended. With the USA up 16-13, the Eagles ran through a series of dumb moves that turned a chance to ice the game into a penalty chance for scrumhalf Samuel Marques to slot a 42-meter penalty goal to secure the tie, and a place in RWC 2023.
The Eagles started the game relatively well, forcing Portugal to knock the kickoff forward and then after the USA pack consolidated, getting a penalty that flyhalf AJ MacGinty put through the posts.
The game quickly morphed into a kicking contest, as neither team seemed eager to play too much with the ball. But when wing Nate Augspurger was yellow-carded for a tip tackle, Portugal had their shot.
The Lobos ran with it and then kicked deep, and while it was a USA lineout at their own five-meter, they were under pressure anf the clearance kick still gave Portugal a nice lineout platform. From there Portugal went wide very quickly, and some smooth ball handling and a nifty cutback from Raffaele Storti produced a brilliant try and a 7-3 lead.
The Eagles then had their chances, but made far, far too many mistakes. They had a lineout five meters from the Portugal line but dropped the ball. They got a penalty off a scrum and a perfect kick to touch from MacGinty,, but couldn't get it over—MacGinty instead had to settle for an easy penalty and a 7-6 scoreline.
The Americans played wide and lost the ball in the ruck. They ran Paul Lasike in tight bit with a forward pass. Up a man due to a yellow card the USA only got three points out of it—another long-range penalty was missed, and really the right option was probably to take another lineout.
In short, it was ugly.
And finally, when the USA seemed to be able to play with the ball and get close to the Portugal line, Greg Peterson's charge was not supported in time and he was penalized.
With hardly any time in the USA 22, Portugal had the first-half lead, and when the Eagles dropped the ball in their own half and followed that up with a scrum penalty, the Lobos added to their advantage. Marques put the kick over and it was 10-6. There was time in the first half and a ruck penalty by Portugal gave MacGinty a chance from 40 meters out and he put it over to make it 10-9 at the break.
Down a point, the Eagles will have to look at the fact that they had a territorial advantage and some try-scoring opportunities on a silver platter and their own mistakes were what kept the score so low.
