USA Moves to Second in ARC After Beating Brazil

The United States Men’s Rugby National team defeated Brazil 33-28 in Round Three of the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) 2019 on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Dell Diamond in Austin, TX. The U.S. is now in second place following their loss to Argentina XV, while Brazil drops to fifth place.

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

USA: 1 Chance Wenglewski 2 James Hilterbrand 3 Paul Mullen 4 Nate Brakeley 5 Nick Civetta 6 John Quill 7 Hanco Germishuys 8 Cam Dolan 9 Shaun Davies 10 Will Magie 11 Mike Te’o 12 Paull Lasike 13 Bryce Campbell 14 Blaine Scully (C) 15 Marcel Brache 16 Dylan Fawsitt 17 David Ainuu 18 Dino Waldren 19 Ben Landry 20 Tevita Tameilau 21 Kapeli Pifeleti 22 Ruben de Haas 23 Will Hooley
Brazil: 1 Lucas Abud 2 Wilton Rebolo 3 jardel Vettorato 4 Matteo Dell’acqua 5 Luiz Vieira 6 Cléber Dias da Silver 7 Arthur Bergo 8 André Arruda 9 Lucas Duque 10 Josh Reeves 11 Robert Tenorio 12 Moises Duque 13 Felipe Sancery (C) 14 Lucas Tranquez 15 Daniel Sancery 16 Yan Rosetti 17 Caique Segura Silva 18 Pedro Bengalo 19 Gabriel Paganini 20 Alexandre Figuerado Alves 21 Douglas Rauth 22 Lorenzo Massari 23 Ariel Rodriques

USA Men’s Eagles Staff

Head Coach – Gary Gold
Assistant Coach, Backs & Attack – Greg McWilliams
Assistant Coach, Forwards – Shawn Pittman
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Huw Bevan
Performance Analyst – Jimmy Harrison
Team Doctor – Sam Akhavan (Brazil)
Head Athletic Trainer – Kevin Ng
Assistant Athletic Trainer – Kristen Douhan
Massage Therapist – Daliah Hurwitz
Team Manager – Chris Hanson

Americas Rugby Championship 2019 Schedule & Results

  • vs Chile  71-8 (W)
  • vs Argentina XV  45-14 (L)
  • BYE WEEK
  • vs Brazil 33-28 (W)
  • Saturday, Mar 2 vs Uruguay – 7:10 PM PT Starfire Sports, Seattle, WA
  • Friday, Mar 8 vs Canada – 7:10 PM PT Starfire Sports, Seattle, WA

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North American Rugby News With A USA Slant