GRR: Eagle Men
Fiji defeated a very brave and tenacious USA team 22-3 Saturday evening in Tokyo, securing a place in the Pacific Nations Cup final.
The USA will play the loser of tomorrow’s Japan-vs-Samoa game for 3rd in a week.
USA Men’s 15s Head Coach Scott Lawrence has made several changes to the USA lineup as the Eagles prepare to face Fiji Saturday at 6AM ET.
The game, one of two semifinals in the Pacific Nations Cup this weekend, will be live on Peacock.
Six players who didn’t start against Japan will be in the starting 15 against Fiji and there are come corresponding changes on the bench.
Japan secured top spot in Pool B of the Pacific Nations Cup early Saturday (US time) with a 41-24 defeat of the USA in Tokyo.
The Brave Blossoms certainly had to work for it in what was still a creditable performance by the USA, but Japan's speed of play and their skill level were too much for the Eagles.
USA Men's 15s Head Coach Scott Peterson has made only two changes from last week as the USA gets set to face Japan in Tokyo.
This is the final game of pool play for the Asahi Dry Pacific Nations Cup (the Pool A final game, Tonga vs Fiji, is tonight). Both teams have secured a semifinal spot, so it's really a case of seing who will win the pool.
The Pacific Nations Cup moves to Japan for the everyone except Tonga and Fiji, and those two teams will be in-country soon enough.
With one more round of pool games left we know where we sit, for the most part. Following the USA's 28-15 defeat of Canada and Samoa's 43-17 defeat of Tonga here's how the standings look: