USA vs. Scotland

The U.S. Men’s National team defeated Scotland last night 30-29 at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas. This was an epic win for the Eagles, as the team has not defeated a Tier 1 Nation since a victory over France, 94 years ago at the 1924 Olympics. The USA defense was stellar at the end of the match in spite of 6th ranked Scotland’s Dougie Fife try after the 80th minute in the corner. The conversion was missed and the USA gained the victory.

Head Coach Gary Gold said that he is “Really, really happy and satisfied that we can go toe to toe with world class teams. The issue is now that we have to do that consistently. We have to continue to get better and better,” said, thrilled by this team’s inspiring energy. “We have a plan, when we stick to the plan and there’s clarity in the player’s minds in terms of what we need to do, then you take the pressure off their shoulders and they can go out and do what they need to do.”

Scotland scored in the first minute with Blair Kinghorn gaining the try and conversion for a 7-0 lead. Scotland defended USA attacks well and the team cut the lead to 7-3 from an AJ MacGinty penalty kick.

Scotland pushed their lead to 14-3 with a penalty try in the 25th minute. This occurred as Samu Manoa drew a yellow for a high tackle. Playing a man down, the USA cut the lead to 14-6 from another MacGinty kick.

Scotland then pushed the lead to 21-7 after going through phases and then attacking from a lineout with George Turner grounding for a try and Kinghorn converting.

The USA answered back with Blaine Scully taking the ball in the outside channel and offloading to Hanco Germishuys. From the breakdown, the team moved the ball with Joe Taufete’e extending the ball over the line for a try. After MacGinty’s conversion, the score was 21-13. Shortly after, Kinghorn slotted a penalty kick bring the score to 24-13 at the break.

Early in the second half, the Eagles dominated possession and with Scotland penalties, marched deep into Scottish territory resulting in a second try by Joe Taufete’e. MacGinty converted again and then added a penalty kick shortly later and the score was 24-23.

The possession continued to favor the Eagles during the second half and an AJ MacGinty break and an offload to Hanco Germishuys added a try in the corner. MacGinty continued his perfect kicking on the day with a difficult kick from touch pushing the lead to 30-24.

Scotland had the last attack of the night and the Eagles did not wilt under the pressure. Finally, with the 80-minute mark passed, Dougie Fife scored in the corner cutting the lead to 30-29. The pressure was on Blair Kinghorn, who needed to make a kick from touch to steal a win. His kick sailed to the right of the posts and the Eagles could celebrate a well-deserved win.

With the historic win over Scotland, the USA will retain 15th place in the ranking but edged closer to 14th ranked Tonga, who defeated Samoa. The team is now 7-0 in 2018 and will play Canada next Saturday in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The kickoff is a 3 pm ET and will be shown live on FloRugby.

USA & Scotland Squads

USA vs. Scotland: 1 Eric Fry 2 Joe Taufete’e 3 Paul Mullen 4 Samu Manoa 5 Nick Civetta 6 John Quill 7 Hanco Germishuys 8 Cam Dolan 9 Shaun Davies 10 AJ MacGinty 11 Marcel Brache 12 Paul Lasike 13 Bryce Campbell 14 Blaine Scully (C) 15 Will Hooley 16 Dylan Fawsitt 17 Titi Lamositeli 18 Chris Baumann 19 Greg Peterson 20 Ben Landry 21 Nate Augspurger 22 Will Magie 23 Dylan Audsley

Scotland vs. USA: 1 Jamie Bhatti 2 George Turner 3 Zander Fagerson 4 Lewis Carmichael 5 Ben Toolis 6 Tim Swinson 7 Luke Hamilton 8 Matt Fagerson 9 George Horne 10 Adam Hastings 11 Byron McGuigan 12 Peter Horne, 13 Nick Grigg 14 Blair Kinghorn 15 Stuart Hogg (C) 16 Fraser Brown 17 Allan Dell 18 Murray McCallum 19 Grant Gilchrist 20 David Denton 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne 22 Mark Bennett 23 Dougie Fife