USA Moves to Second in ARC After Beating Brazil

The Eagles will travel to Seattle for two final games against Uruguay on March 2 and finish the ARC against rival-Canada March 8 at Starfire Sports. Tickets for all three remaining matches are available at usarugby.org/tickets. All games will be broadcast LIVE on FloRugby, exclusively in the U.S.

Match Recap

The Eagles struck first with a penalty kick by Will Magie after a scrummaging infraction by Brazil. On a subsequent attack, James Hilterbrand was held up in-goal. After several 5-meter lineouts, the scoring opportunity ended with Paul Lasike losing the ball forward, which allowed Brazil to clear.

Brazil was frequently offsides and after a couple of warnings, Lucas Adud was sent to the bion and Will Magie then slotted a kick to push the lead to 6-0. Brazil answered right back with a kick by Josh Reeves to cut the lead to 6-3.

On the ensuing restart, a Brazil knock-on gave the ball to the U.S. inside Brazil’s 22-meters. Hanco Germishuys broke two tackles in moving the ball close to in-goal and John Quill crossed the line but was held up. Attacking from a 5-meter scrum, Paul Lasike took an inside ball in for a try and after Magie’s conversion, the score was 13-3.

The Eagles added another try after a Mickey Te’o break and an offload to Hanco Germishuys for a try and after Magie converted the score was 20-3.

The restart was then mishandled by Brazil and resulted in a scrum inside the USA 22-meters. A Brazil drive then created a penalty and Josh Reeves slotted the kick to cut the lead to 20-6. The USA attacked from the restart and a Paul Lasike offload to Mickey Te’o led to a try for a 25-6 lead.

Just prior to the break, Brazil showed their scrum dominance with three consecutive 5-meter scrums. Lucas Duque then scored from the nine channel and Reeves converted to cut the lead to 25-13 at the break.

The USA played expansive rugby for much of the first half, with errors allowing Brazil to capitalize and to make the match closer than it should.

Second Half

Brazil opened the second half scoring by punishing the Eagles with a Reeves penalty kick after another infraction. The Eagles answered back with a Te’o break and an offload to John Quill for a try and a 30-16 lead.

The USA then appeared to put the match out of reach with an apparent try by Germishuys, however after reviewing the TMO, it was determined that Germishuys was pushed ahead by Civetta, and a try was not awarded. This allowed Reeves to clear.

Brazil scored next, with Moises Duque crossing the line to cut the lead to 30-21. A Magie penalty kick pushed the lead to 33-21.

Tempers then flared and Ben Landry was sent to the bin for a punch and the  Eagles would need to play short for the remainder of the match. Brazil then cut the lead to 33-28 after a Matteo Dell’Aqua try and a Reeves conversion.

Brazil had an opportunity to tie the match or take the lead from a 5-meter lineout, but a turnover led to a 5-meter Eagles scrum. Neither team would add additional points with the USA claiming a 33-28 win.

Kapeli Pifeleti earned his first Eagles cap in the closing seconds and Brazil’s Lucas and Moises Duque earned their 50th caps.

USA Head Coach Gary Gold was not pleased with the team’s performance. There were too many handling errors and this allowed Brazil to remain close.  The USA was playing expansive rugby and maintaining possession and using tactical kicking. A number of players had very good performances, but more was expected of the team.

The Eagles now travel to Seattle and will play Uruguay and Canada the next two weekends.

Squads

Other Articles

DJCoil Rugby articles by Doug Coil are also available on Facebook. Other Social Media sites to follow or subscribe include Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for interviews.