USA Military Team Defeats RAF To Round Out Tour
USA Military Team Defeats RAF To Round Out Tour
The USA Military team ended their tour of the UK with an emphatic defeat of the Royal Air Force on Tuesday night at the Army Rugby Stadium in Aldershot.
Coming off a loss to the British Army, currently the best service team in Britain, the USA Military side was determined to avoid silly penalties and poorly-timed execution mistakes.
In the end, while it wasn't a completely perfect performance, the Americans controlled territory and the point of contact, and played some very skillful and intelligent rugby, as well.
Former Army West Point standout flanker Collin Grosse scored two tries, and flyhalf Cody Melphy was brilliant in running the attack and, chiefly, negating RAF’s kicking game.
The game began with the USA Military received the kickoff. While they turned the ball over in their half the Americans defended well and finally got the ball back.
Lock Jackson Bristol snagged the ball away from an RAF player and found himself charging up the field untouched.
“I know I wouldn’t have the pace to go all the way so I started looking around for someone to pass to, and thankfully we had guys on my right,” Bristol said after the game.
Wing Logan Legg and Melphy were in support and they connected to almost get Melphy to the line. The USA support was there and the forwards consolidated before Grosse picked up and dove over. Melphy converted and just a few minutes in it was 7-0 USA Military.
The Military side looked to play in the RAF end and they did that. When the RAF got the ball back and kicked to touch, the USA lineout was working so well it was just another launching pad for them. Penalties were hardly any better, as Bristol stole multiple RAF throws.
But the USA Military couldn’t score. Logan Tago got close, but a period of about 10 minutes saw the USA Military knocking on the door but nit getting in.
Finally the RAF was able to get out of their half. They looked to maul but the USA Military team didn’t engage, forcing the RAF to send the ball out. In open field the USA defense was punishing.
Finally, late in the first half the dam broke. After coming close to scoring off a lineout-and-maul, the USA ended up stealing a lineout (thanks to Bristol) and sending Tago charging through. He was dragged down but hooker KoiKoi Nelligan was there to pick up and finish it off. Melphy converted and it was 14-0.
“That was an important try because we felt like the tries would come now,” said Melphy.
And that’s exactly how it happened. With the half almost over RAF turned the ball over in their end. Tago sent it to Legg, who drew attention and popped it back inside to Tago for the try. Conversion good and it was 21-0 at the break.
RAF had to be talking about reducing turnovers during their halftime talk. Meanwhile, USA Military Head Coach, Allen Clarke, praised his team’s discipline and told the players to cottinue to back their defense.
For the second half he wanted his players to be “ultra disciplined” and be smart about challenging the breakdown.
“They are going to throw everything at us,” Clarke added.
Captain John Cullen told his players not to get tired doing the simple things. “Love it,” he told them.
In the opening moments of the second half the USA Military swarmed onto the RAF. They forced a turnover and sent it wide where Grosse charged over for his second. That made it 26-0. However, the game did somewhat devolve after that. It got chippy, and it got chirpy as there was some significant banter coming from the coasts.
The USA players managed, generally, to laugh it off. They made some changes with reserves and while the bench raised the intensity, sometimes the connections didn’t quite work. A couple of prime scoring opportunities went begging as a result of that.
However, Niko Spino unleashed some impressive footwork to break through and score, and that, with Melphy’s conversion, made it 33-0.
The RAF finally powered over a try but it took them a long time to get there. Ultimately the USA Military was the better team in terms of physicality, teamwork, skill, and rugby IQ.
No. 8 Dacoda Worth played a superb game despite being under the weather. However the entire forward pack was solid, with Bristol and Cullen enormous at lock.
In the backs, Spino was top back of the game, however, there was plenty of good play, with Melphy probably the best of those who didn’t get an award. Melphy had injury his right shoulder in the first game of the tour and simply switched to tackling with his left shoulder. He toughed it out in this game and was excellent.
USA Military 33
Tries: Grosse 2, Nelligan, Spino, Tago
Convs: Melphy 4
RAF 7
