The USA Men’s Eagles were dominant in the first half of their first of three August test matches tonight, scoring a 31-17 win over Romania in Bucharest.
With nine debut players on the roster on Saturday, the team was looking to build young player confidence and parlay veteran experience as they build up the next four years. Their first match out of the gates proved that these new caps have a lot to bring into the new era.
This match was all about making a statement for both teams. For Romania, a number of players we’re competing for a spot on the plane to France for the Rugby World Cup. For the USA, it was getting off on a good foot into the next chapter of the program story.
Romania is a strong and physical team, so the Eagles needed to match their strength and pressure. The Eagles took that challenge, starting out with confidence and intent to play fast over the first 30 minutes. A few turnovers and set pieces kept the pressure on both sides, but the Eagles struck first with an early try by Cam Dolan, scoring his 100th point for the USA Men’s Eagles.
Riding a high from the early lead, the USA used textbook set pieces to keep possession and force most of the play in Romania’s territory. Another solid line out by the Eagles got the ball to debut Nick McCarthy, who dove over the try line on the wing to add another five points to the USA’s lead. With the temperature high and a sweaty ball forcing small mistakes by both teams, Romania needed to drive through and try and get into USA territory.
Their work paid off for a few meters, but the USA proved to be a tough match against the host team. They stole the ball away in a line out to get possession back, and effortless teamwork among some of the squad’s veterans got Christian Dyer over the try line to extend the lead at halftime.
A near-flawless performance for the Eagles in the first half put them in great position to keep up against a scrambling Romanian side. The home team started the second half with possession, trying to make something happen with ball in hand. They found themselves on the defensive in their own territory again, where the USA earned a penalty try off a rolling maul and earned an automatic seven more points while one of Romania’s critical forwards went to the sin bin with a yellow card.
Playing to the advantage, the Eagles didn’t let up with conditioning and fitness showing late, and went for another line out to rolling maul, which glided over the try line. Paddy Ryan got the score in his debut tournament. With fatigue setting in, the Eagles’ performance became a bit scrappy, letting Romania slide through defense to run down the field and finally get their name on the board. The try was the confidence booster Romania needed, as they went on to score two more times.
Luke Carty slotted two conversions in the game to add four more points to the 31-17 win.
“We wanted to start fast and nail the basics, which was the set piece and defense and win races to the breakdown. It was a good kicking game. The first half started really well. Romania didn’t have a 22-meter entry in the first half, so we really did the things we want to then.
There was some nervous energy with nine new caps and we definitely fell off in the second half there, but the bench added enough energy to get us the win. We certainly saw during the warmup some nervous boys, but at the end of the day they really cared for each other and played for each other, and that was good to see. We need to be tidier on the breakdown and be faster on the ball while getting and retaining possession.”
“The first half was great. We implemented everything that Scott wanted us to from the past three weeks, and we went out and did that. All process orientated which was really, really good. In the second half, we just took the throttle off a little bit, let them get their gain in the scrum and the maul, which was their power game and they got to play some really good footy after that. So we just have to go back and look at why we faltered a little bit in those small moments, those small momentum shifts, and hope they’re all really easy fixes.
Work ons will largely be around our own breakdown and ways to win the race as well as tweaks on the scrums and mauls. We came out with a big gain going fast those first 20 minutes. We can probably still be a little bit more critical at times but the boys did great. It was tough conditions out there, it was extremely warm even though it was 8 o’clock at night, but it’s looking good going forward from here.”
| Name | Club | Caps |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Jack Iscaro | Old Glory DC | 3 |
| 2. Dylan Fawsitt | New York Ironworkers | 23 |
| 3. Paul Mullen | Utah Warriors | 31 |
| 4. Cam Dolan | NOLA Gold | 64 |
| 5. Greg Peterson (C) | Unattached | 40 |
| 6. Sam Golla | Dallas Jackals | 1 |
| 7. Paddy Ryan | Coventry (ENG) | 1 |
| 8. Luke White | Chicago Hounds | 1 |
| 9. Nick McCarthy | Leinster | 1 |
| 10. Luke Carty | Chicago Hounds | 12 |
| 11. Nate Augspurger (VC) | San Diego Legion | 37 |
| 12. Tommaso Boni | Zebra (ITA) | 1 |
| 13. Mika Kruse | Utah Warriors | 6 |
| 14. Christian Dyer | Houston SaberCats | 12 |
| 15. Mitch Wilson | New England Free Jacks | 4 |
| 16. Joe Taufete'e | Unattached | 37 |
| 17. Jake Turnbull | Seattle Seawolves | 1 |
| 18. Takaji Young Yen | Utah Warriors | 1 |
| 19. Nate Brakeley | New York Ironworkers | 31 |
| 20. Thomas Tu'avao | Utah Warriors | 1 |
| 21. Ruben de Haas | Free State Cheetahs (RSA) | 29 |
| 22. Chris Mattina | Chicago Hounds | 1 |
| 23. Tavite Lopeti | Seattle Seawolves | 8 |
Head Coach | Scott Lawrence
Assistant Coach - Attack | Alama Ieremia
Assistant Coach - Forwards and Defense | Nick Easter
Head of Athlete Performance | Alex Ross
Head Analyst | Jimmy Harrison
Head Physiotherapist | Kristen Douhan
Assistant ATC | Ron Klingensmith
Sports Massage Therapist | Daliah Hurwitz
Team Doctor | Abigail Hamilton
Team Manager | Oscar Alvarez
Aug 5 | USA vs Romania | Bucharest, ROM | 31-17 (W)
Aug 12 | USA vs Portugal | Algarve, POR
Aug 19 | USA vs Georgia | Tbilisi, GEO
Sep 17 | USA vs Stade Toulousain | Salt Lake City, UT
