The USA held off Samoa 36-26 Saturday in the first test of WXV2 held at Stellenbosch in South Africa.
Debutante Mata Hingano, who has been on the USA radar for almost 10 years, since she was in high school, finally got her first cap and was outstanding on attack. The Eagles, however, were vulnerable at times. Samoa looked to win the battle at the contact point and probably did win more of those than they lost. In addition, little skill breakdowns and moments of impatience undercut some promising attacks. The Eagles knocked on at the goalline twice, missed touch on a couple of penalties, fumbled a couple of key attacking lineouts, and made a couple of rather bad defensive breakdowns, and all of that made it a lot closer than it should have been.
Hard and Fast
The USA started playing hard and fast and took the game to Samoa. In the early going a nice steal and run from No. 8 Rachel Johnson got the Eagles on the front foot, and a penalty led to a nice attacking lineout. The USA surged nicely to the tryline but a knock-on by Fred Tafuna ended that. Samoa kicked clear and when Erica Jarrell let a lineout through slip through her fingers it was Manusina Samoa that had the momentum. With the ball the Samoans were imposing and moved the pill quickly as well. Eventually off a scrum they ran wing Linda Fiafia through the middle and the USA defense was simply weak. Try under the posts for Samoa and a 7-0 lead.
The Americans responded fairly well, kicking out of their end on the run and with lock Hallie Taufoou forcing a holding-on penalty. They took the lineout and while the ensuing maul was dragged down, the Eagles kept playing and quick hands on the weak side from Carly Waters to Gabby Cantorna to Lotte Clapp put the wing over for a 7-5 score.
With Samoa hooker Lulu Leuta in the sin bin for a high tackles the USA looked to build on that try. But perhaps the pressure to make the power play work has been creeping into the Eagle heads because they have a habit of making errors at a time they should be calm and patient. Poor passing did indeed have the Eagles back in their 22. However, a smart kick on the gallop by wing Tess Feury bounced between Samoan players. Once again Taufoou was there to steal is and as the USA consolidated, Hingano cut back to go over. Cantorna converted and the USA had the lead at 12-7.
Samoa Answers
But, still up a player, the Eagles showcased some very poor tackling. Samoa exploited a turnover and put fullback Karla Wright-Akeli in under the sticks again. Samoa was back in the lead 14-12.
But with halftime beckoning the USA took the lead for good. Samoa had been blitzing hard when on defense and the way to deal with that is to pass quickly, or be super-strong when hit, or think fast and find the vertical gap created by the blitzer. The last option was what Hingano took, dummying and sliding around the blitzing defender before racing 60 meters. She sidestepped another player and bumped off one more before finding, of all people, Taufoou, who finished off an exciting movement.
The half ended 17-14.
USA Strikes
In the second half, right off the kickoff, the Eagles found a hole. Hingano slipped through off some broken play and offloaded to hooker Kathryn Treder. The ball had hit the ground but Treder did well to gather and throw a chest pass to Feury, who took off from 40 meters out to score.
The play was reviewed for a potential knock-on by Hingano but it showed that a Samoan hand had in fact knocked the ball to the ground. Try good, and Cantorna’s conversion made it 24-14.
The Eagles caught a break after that when a Samoan kick for territory rolled past the dead ball line. That made for a scrum near midfield. Once again Hingano exploited the blitz and cruised through the gap. She kept going with captain Kate Zackary at her hip. As Hingano was about to be tackled she slipped the ball to Zackary, who finished off another long-range try. Cantorna’s conversion made it a commanding 31-14 lead.
Not long after Johnson scored off an eightman pick in which she covered quite a bit of ground, and caught a boot to the face before her teammates helped her over the line.
At 36-14 the USA seemed in control, but things started to unravel a bit after that. One movement saw several really not-smart offloads as the Eagles became drunk with power. One could see Zackary urging her players to calm down and just carry into contact to re-set a ruck.
