Eagles Race by Brazil in Americas Rugby Championship Win

The Eagles took a 13-0 lead into halftime over Brazil and then added six more tires in the second half to win 51-3. With their 29-23 win over Uruguay last week, the Eagles are tied for first place with Argentina XV with 9 points in the Americas Rugby Championship. They will travel to Canada for week three before finishing the ARC for their final two matches against Chile and Argentina XV. With Canada’s win against Chile on Saturday, they are in third place with 5 points in the standings.

Brazil came into the match against the Eagles tied with them after having beaten Chile the week before. They also wanted to show that their one point win in Brazil last year, was not a fluke.

Last year the South American two matches for the Eagles were played with essentially a developmental side, as the European professionals were not available. With home matches and a stronger side this year against Uruguay and Brazil, wins against Uruguay and against Brazil were imperative.

The Eagles used a stolen lineout and went through four phases before a Will Magie kick and a Nate Augspurger chase resulted in a turnover to the USA. Bryce Campbell quickly feed the ball to Spike Davis and the newly capped Eagle was in for a try and an Eagles 5-0 lead three minutes into the match.

The Eagles would maintain most of the possession during the match with Josh Reeves executing clearance kicks that resulted in more USA attacks. Brazil also committed numerous penalties and a penalty for not rolling away at a breakdown ten minutes later, resulted in Will Magie slotting a penalty kick and increasing the Eagles lead to 8-0.

Two minutes later, Luiz Vieira was sent to the bin after a dangerous over the shoulder tackle of Magie. The teams then traded penalty kick attempts as first Moisés Duque’s penalty kick attempt drifted left and then Magie’s kick also went left. Brazil survived playing down a man, but two minutes after Brazil was back at full strength, the USA went on the attack stringing together multiple phases before JP Eloff found a gap near touch and eluded three defender for a try in the corner. Magie conversion form near touch was missed, but the Eagles increased their lead to 13-0, a lead that would be maintained until halftime.

During the first half, the Eagles were attacking well from set pieces, as they were 6 for 6 for their lineouts and stole two of Brazil’s. They also held their own in the scrums. If anything, perhaps kicking less during the first half would have given the Eagles more opportunities to add to their lead.

To begin the second half, the Eagles made their first substitutions in the match with Tony Purpura and Chris Baumann coming in as props.

After surviving an early penalty, the ball was turned over and the Eagles attacked through multiple phases before a high tackle on McFarland had Magie kicking to touch for a lineout. Civetta gathered ball from the lineout and after the maul broke down only feet fro the line, Tony Lamborn dove in for a try and a 18-0 lead. Magie’s kicking miscues continued today, as the ball was wide right.

Soon after a penalty by the USA at the 40 meter line had Moisés Duque slotting a penalty kick, which would be Brazil’s only score of the day.

The next several minutes would result in attacks by both sides, but after a penalty at the 57th minute, Cam Dolan went in for a try and a bonus point for the standings. Shaun Davies attempted the conversion, but it was just right of the posts.

Brazil then had their best scoring opportunity when the ball was kicked ahead and JP Eloff saved a try from the chase taking the ball in-goal and grounding for a Brazil 5 meter scrum, which was won by the Eagles. Brazil were awarded a penalty and the ball was held up in-goal. This resulted in another scrum to Brazil where they took the ball blind and Mikey Te’o  anticipated a pass to the hooker and intercepted the ball and thwarted Brazil’s chance for a try.

The USA would soon add another try, after a Ben Cima cross kick went in-goal. After a turnover by Brazil and a scrum to the Eagles, Nate Augspurger broke deep into Brazil’s territory and offloaded to Shaun Davies who popped the ball to Tony lamborn for his second try. Ben Cima converted and the Eagles led 30-3.

Nate Augspurger then took a quick tap from a penalty a drew in a defender near the line before offloading to Mikey Te’o for a try. Cima converted again and the score was now 37-3. Bryce Campbell then intercepted a pass and went in for a try with Cima’s third conversion, the score was 44-3.  Peter Tiberio then capped off the last try of the match with his first try, bringing the final score to 51-3.

The 48-point winning margin was the Eagles’ eighth-largest margin of victory in an international test match.

Men’s Eagles v. Brazil 1. Ben Tarr 2. James Hilterbrand (C) 3. Dino Waldren 4. Nate Brakeley 5. Nick Civetta 6. John Quill 7. Tony Lamborn 8. Al McFarland 9. Shaun Davies 10. Will Magie 11. Nate Augspurger 12. JP Eloff 13. Bryce Campbell 14. Spike Davis 15. Mike Te’o 16. Peter Malcolm 17. Chris Baumann 18. Anthony Purpura 19. Cameron Dolan 20. Todd Clever 21. Ben Cima 22. Peter Tiberio 23. Deion Mikesell