The Rugby World Cup in England is still the better part of two years away, yet here we are starting the journey, which for some teams will be hard fought and won, for others will lead to exclusion from the series altogether. It’s fitting then that the top spot for the America’s pool is contended between the two big North American rugby powers, USA and Canada.
The series is a little different in that it’s a two game “home and home”. Game one was played on Saturday evening in Charleston, SC. Game two is this Saturday at BMO Field in Toronto.
These types of confrontations fascinate me, so I took the greatest pleasure in tuning in myself to watch the game. Of course, with the vagaries of the international dateline, my match was over Sunday morning coffee rather than Saturday night beers, but it’s got to be said…DAMN what a game!
I watched the All Blacks play the night before, when Ben Smith scored within three minutes. The Canada/USA game had Phil Mack from the Red Nation crashing over the line in 37 seconds! I’ve never seen anything like it! The play was just sublime, perfectly weighted chip kick, in behind the defences and boom, that’s all she wrote.
Mack was one of the most dominant players of the whole game, he seemed to be in every great play, he was just always there. Mack was instrumental in the second try from Harry Jones, after having his own second try disallowed.
The Canadians were also supported by the very able boot skills of James Pritchard, who slotted three fantastic conversions, and two penalties.
Make no mistake, USA’s Eagles were no easy beats. The issue though seems to be getting some fundamentals down. Giving away penalties proved costly for the home side, and while Chris Wyles threatened on a few occasions, both with the boot and with a stunning 20-meter run, he wasn’t able to capitalise often enough. The defence looked shaky at times, and the play was a little too inconsistent. Yet, through all of this you can see that the Eagles DO have talent, and I’d say that the next game could be very, very interesting.
The Eagles were gracious in their 27-9 defeat, acknowledging the fact that if you make mistakes, a team like Canada is going to jump all over you. Both Head Coach Mike Tolkin, and Chris Wyles agree the Eagles need to take a good hard look at themselves, and I have no doubt they’ll come out swinging in match two.
Canada for their part needs to keep their focus and keep their hunger. As much as this is a step on the road to the Rugby World Cup, the road is pretty damn long. The winner of this series gets themselves the number one berth in the Americas pool, the number two team will travel to Monte Video to face the big forward pack of Uruguay.
USA need to contain the big play makers like Mack, and focus on keeping the ball in hand. They need to use their possession better, think more about moving the ball around, get wide and use the space.
Canada need to keep up the pressure, use their big forward pack to the continued devastating effect they have been, and maybe experiment a bit with their game play as well.
Both teams have everything to play for. Game two is Saturday afternoon at 4pm EST / 1pm PST, which is about 8am Sunday morning for me in NZ. Rugby for breakfast? Oh yes, I think so!
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