It's been a hard couple of days' work and intense examination of performance for the USA U18 boys as they look ahead to Wednesday's Round 2 of the Corendon Summer Tour.
The Americans are coming off a 43-26 defeat of Belgium in Round 1, with the more pessimistic observers pointing to four tries given up as something to work on. Don't let the Belgium tag fool you, however. While Belgium is not a major player in the World Rugby scene, many of their U18 players are in professional academies in France.
For Wednesday's matchup with rivals Canada, Head Coach Dominic Wareing has made a few changes.
Forwards
It's a completely different second row with Sederik Saxons (Phoenix Alpharetta) and Maseah Young (Xavier HS) coming in. Brice Muller of Fairfield Prep will be a finisher off the bench while Connor Nel (Blackrock College Ireland) and Young are actually just making a switch between lock and blindside flanker. The rest of the back row, the front row, and the interior backs remains unchanged.
Backs
There's a small shift in the deep three with two-time try-scorer Masi Koi (Granite Bay) sliding to the reserves while Ryan Putka (St. Ignatius Cleveland) moves from fullback to right wing. Charlotte Cardinal Jake Schumacher, who also scored against Belgium, gets a start and Xavier wing Padraig Long also shifts to the reserves. That leaves fullback open and Gonzaga's Kieran Downs comes in.
Those changes are perhaps an indication the USA expects Canada to test their opposition with kicks. Schumacher, Putka, and Downs are all solid fielding kicks and can counter or return with the boot.
The addition of Saxon in the second row really is a nod to his ability to rebound from injury which kept him out of part of the EIRA tour of Spain.
Canada is coming off a 27-20 loss to hosts the Netherlands. Kickoff for Round 2 is at noon local time in Amsterdam, 6AM ET.
Live Stream link is here: https://eyecons.com/videos/summer-tour-day-2-25528
(Game 1 had technical difficulties so wasn't shown. We're hoping those issues have been fixed.)
Later on Netherlands faces Belgium.
Current Standings
| Corendon Summer Tour | W | L | T | PF | PA | PD | BT | BL | Pts |
| USA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 26 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 20 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Canada | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 27 | -7 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Belgium | 0 | 1 | 0 | 26 | 43 | -17 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
