USA South U19 Men Go 2-0 in RAN Opening Day
USA South U19 Men Go 2-0 in RAN Opening Day
USA Rugby South ended Day 1 of the Rugby Americas North U19 Men's 15s competition 2-0 and are in good position to go deep in the competition.
The Panthers beat a tough Jamaican side 21-7 before shutting out Trinidad & Tobago 31-0.
Jamaica fielded a tough team made up partly of players who had been training in the UK—England especially has a large population of young people whose parents or grandparents are Jamaican.
With that, Jamaica's pace, the wind, and perhaps a bit of nerves, it took a long time for the USA South Panthers to cross the tryline.
Well, that's not entirely true, as the Panthers did cross the tryline early, but were held up by a tenacious Jamaican side. With the ball in hand Jamaica looked very dangerous, but USA South was able to bring the physicality and force turnovers. Still, the wind pulled some wide passes offline and both teams figured out soon enough that their passes had to be more direct.
The Panthers struggled in executing in their lineouts, but once they got one moving, they put the Jamaicans under pressure. That pressure led to a penalty in the ruck and flyhalf Quinn Vorster put the kick over for a 3-0 lead. Back came the Panthers, but while they held a lot of possession, their backs were somewhat static and it took a while to get back into scoring position. Another penalty did get called and Vorster was good on that kick just as the half ended.
In the second half the Panthers were back and played a bit more dynamically. A high tackle led to a yellow card against Jamaica and Vorster put over a kick again to make it 9-0. And then finally, midway through the second half, they scored a try. A penalty led to, this time, a kick to touch. The lineout was taken nicely by lock Chris Jensvold and the forwards kept working on it, before reserve front-rower Gozi Mosi crashed over.
Vorster put the conversion over and now it was a three-score game at 16-0.
The South could have built on that but slight missed connections and mistakes undercut them. Center Jason Trevino was outstanding and every time he touched the ball made things better for his team.
A massive run from Mosi almost got him to the line, and the South recycled quickly and sent it wide to back Charlie Joe Rosemeyer who scored to make it 21-0 and got a bloody nose for his pains.
With time up, Jamaica managed to get a nicely-taken try by No. 8 Khalil Brown, converted by Mason Campbell.
That was it. The Panthers were good at times, and won thanks to the power of their pack, but they looked like what they were, a team that had just come together.
In Game 2 the Panthers used the formula of dominating physically to pummel T&T. Luis Gruzado has Trinidad & Tobago on the back foot early and that charge eventually led to that man again, Mosi, crashing over for a try.
Vorster converted and it was 7-0.
Mosi was good again on a try, once again finishing off a better series from the Panthers that got them close. And the Okapi Wanderers front-rower made it three in a row with a nice pick-and-go near the tryline and a 19-0 lead midway through the first half.
Things settled down a little after that and while the South kept T&T from getting any scoring chances, they took some time to score again. In the second half, once again their worked their way to the line and this time it was loose forward Jacob Siler who picked up and was over. Flanker Keaton McLeavy dove over for his team's 5th try.
Rosemeyer converted one of those and that was it, 31-0.
So the USA leads Pool B with a 2-0 record. Jamaica beat T&T to move to 1-1, with Trinidad & Tobago 0-2. In Pool A, there was a surprise as Mexico, defending champions, lost their opener 15-7 to Cayman Islands and then slipped to a tie against Bermuda, 7-7. Bermuda then shut out Cayman Islands 29-0 to win Pool B with a 1-0-1 record. Cayman was second at 1-1, and Mexico third at 0-1-1.
But Mexico is not out of it. All six teams will participate in games Friday. The huge rivalry between USA South and Mexico, which normally is pursued in the final, will now be played out in a pre-playoff game on Friday.
As Pool B winners USA will play the #2 and #3 from Pool A, which is Cayman Islands and Mexico.
As Pool A winners, Bermuda will play Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
Those 2nd- and 3rd-place teams will also play each other. From all of those games, we will find out our championship matchup. If Mexico beats Jamaica and T&T, they will be in the final. USA South has to keep it rolling and defeat two very tough teams to make the championship game.
