The USA put a bit of a worry into Scotland and led at halftime, but ultimately lost to Scotland 39-16 Sunday in the Rugby World Cup Pool B clash at Eland Road in Leeds.

The Eagles started out exactly as they wanted to, controlling the possession and having the better of the territorial game. Forced to play on a longer field, Scotland found themselves up against a physical USA defensive wall.

Phil Thiel makes a tackle for the USA.

Duncan Weir goes over for Scotland.

The Eagles got on the board early with a penalty goal from AJ MacGinty, but fullback Stuart Hogg replied for Scotland, and then Finn Russell whacked one over from short range to give his side the 6-3 lead.

But the Eagles were playing more of the rugby, and Seamus Kelly especially, but also Chris Wyles and Blaine Scully, tested the Scots out wide.

Then from an attacking lineout the Eagles drove in close. Usually with these rucks at the tryline the Eagles have been painfully slow to not score a try. But this time prop Titi Lamositele picked up and stayed low while Greg Peterson game him a shove, and that was good enough for the try. MacGinty hit the conversion and that made it 10-6 with about 20 minutes left in the first half. Both teams played physical defense, and needed to rely on penalty kicks to get points. Hogg missed one, and MacGinty made one, and the USA entered the break up 13-6.

But Scotland rang changes in the front row, displeased with how the Eagles had hurt them there, and in general the tenor of the game changed almost immediately in the second period.

There was a lot of pressure on Scotland for the second half, and also, tellingly, for any referee, including Chris Pollock, and it was the main official’s decisions that made some key differences.

The Eagles won the restarts and kicked clear, but the Scots worked it left and punched halfway through. Then they flooded the left side and popped hands past Ngwenya and Wyles to Tim Visser who went in clear on the wing.

That made it 13-11, but the Eagles pushed back. After a high ball the US defense pressured nicely, forcing a loose Scotland pass. Here came the key referee decision - Seamus Kelly went after a Scotland player as the ball came to that player. But the ball rolled away and Kelly and the Scottish player collided lightly. Both, at this point, seemed out of the play and the contact wasn’t much anyway. 

Meanwhile, Blaine Scully had raced in, gathered the ball, and was away, possibly to score.

But referee Pollock called the play back for Kelly taking out the man without the ball. Kelly asked “don’t you let that go?” which was a legitimate question, since this type of thing happens all the time in international rugby. But Scotland avoided the try and got a penalty, and from there they took the lineout, and worked the forwards down to the USA line.

Scotland then were clearly allowed to go straight onto the ball in the rucks and seal off, and that helped them exploit a gap and a nice pop pass to Sean Maitland and a Scotland lead of 18-16.

The Eagles then made some changes, bringing Shalom Suniula on for Mike Petri at scrumhalf, and Cam Dolan on for Greg Peterson.

Right after that, the Eagles broke through and forced a penalty, which MacGinty popped over. But they gave it right back. First, Suniula’s kick was blocked and only a desperate tackle from Manoa stopped a try. Dolan, Eric Fry, and MacGinty all got to the line in time to stop a second Scottish effort and MacGinty ripped the ball out as he rolled into touch.

That meant a lineout for Scotland, and from a maul they punched the forwards up and WP Nel stretched over to score.

Now it was 25-16 for Scotland, and again a key call turned a USA attacking position to a negative situation.

The Eagles forced a knock-on and took the ball. Pollock called advantage and then ended the advantage after one pass. Immediately after, Pollock was poorly positioned and shielded the ball as it was passed to Scully. Scully dropped the ball, and Pollock apologized for being in the way, but said it didn’t touch him, and called a scrum for Scotland.

From that Scotland got a penalty, and a penalty after that eventually led to Scott breaking through. 

But the Eagles kept at it. Olive Kilifi, John Quill, and Chris Baumann all came on. The Eagles got a penalty, took the lineout and got another penalty for collapsing the maul. But the next maul was stopped just short of the line. Manoa managed to get the ball back, but Kilifi knocked the ball on in contact. 

All in all the issues that have plagued the USA throughout the buildup remained - losing the ball in contact and messing up the lineout. The Eagles came very close to scoring after Kelly found a gap. But his support was far away. He wriggled out of trouble, and then Fenoglio was close to the line. But Kilifi was hit as he took a pass and lost the ball forward again, and a key chance was lost. Of course there was a penalty on that ensuing scrum.

Repeatedly the USA shot themselves in the foot by dropping the ball. But they were also hit by some shocking non-calls - Scotland ended the game just diving straight onto their own ball in the rucks - and some harsh actually calls - John Quill getting nailed for a high tackle that was perfectly fine. 

Both factors contributed to a Scottish try - Duncan Weir bluing through at center.

So everyone but the USA got what they wanted out of this game. It was a scary first half that kept the Scots humble and the fans interested, followed by an impressive comeback and an entertaining second half. The fact that it was accomplished at the expense of allowing the USA to play defense in the rucks, and it was done with at least one key call providing a 14-point turnaround.

Having said that, the USA ball security in the second half was unacceptable, and cost the Eagles points. And while the game stats were virtually equal between the two teams, the USA missed twice as many tackles as Scotland, 22-11, and thus had to work harder on defense.

“Yet again our discipline let us down,” said USA captain Chris Wyles. We’re pretty upset with our discipline. We came in at halftime and we were happy with where we were. We were being physical and being direct. … You can’t give easy ball to teams like this.”

USA 16

Tries: Lamositele

Convs: MacGinty

Pens: MaxGinty 3

Scotland 39

Tries: Visser, Mailtand, Nel, Scott, Weir

Convs: Russell, Laidlaw 3

Pens: Hogg, Rossell