Weird Day Two in RAN U19 Championships; USA South To Final
Weird Day Two in RAN U19 Championships; USA South To Final
USA South is into the final of the Rugby Americas North U19 championship after just barely getting through the second round of games Friday in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Panthers had a tough game to start in a round-robin against teams from the opposite pool. They faced defending champs Mexico, who didn't have a great Day One but were still tough.
Mexico controlled a large portion of territory thanks in large part to the work of Emilio Sanchez. And in fact Sanchez scored Mexico's lone try on a tap penalty, and converted for a 7-0 lead. Los Serpientes almost doubled that with a break in the second half but some desperate tackling by the South cover defense kept it 7-0.
The South almost scored a couple of times—Chris Jensvold was over but was adjudged held up.
Then with time winding down center Jason Trevino cut through for the try and Quinn Vorster converted. That made it 7-7 and that's how it ended.
In the second game of the day the USA South Panthers dominated the game against Cayman Islands. They struggled to convert some of that pressure into tries, but Vorster was on-song with his boot. Luis Gruzado powered over for two tries, capping off some hard work from the forwards.
Vorster converted both and added three penalty goals to secure a 23-0 shutout win.
Vorster credited his father for working with him on his goalkicking, and said the key to his team's success was its intensity.
So at 1-0-1 the USA team was not perfect.
Mexico ended up tying Cayman Islands for their third tie of the tournament. So Mexico ended the day 0-0-2 and Cayman 0-1-1.
On the other side, Jamaica beat Trinidad & Tobago 28-0 and Bermuda shut out T&T 13-0. Then Jamaica and Bermuda tied 8-8. That turned out to be enough for the USA, as Jamaica (1-0-1 +28) pipped Bermuda (1-0-1 #13), and the USA had the pointed difference (+23 vs +13) over Bermuda.
So the first game for the South, Jamaica, will be the last, as those two play in the final on Sunday. Mexico takes on Bermuda for 3rd, and T&T faces Cayman Islands for 5th.
