With ninety seconds to go, the USA Sevens looked like they were heading to the gold medal game of the inaugural Pan-Am games Rugby Sevens tournament.
But Canada had other thoughts, scoring on the last play of the game to send the Eagles to the third-place game by a score of 21-19.
That hurts. A lot.
Photo Credit: Eagles XV
By Dallen Stanford
Toronto – Despite a late comeback from the Eagles, Canada held on for a 28-22 win in front of a record crowd of more than 10,000 at BMO Field. In so doing Canada retain the Can/Am Trophy. The match was aired LIVE on TSN in Canada and Universal Sports in America.
The USA produced some excellent passages of play, scoring three team tries in the process.
Eagles Head Coach, Eddie O’Sullivan, said: “We are disappointed, it would have been great to get the win here in Toronto. We let in a couple of tries from very simple errors that really hurt us, and put ourselves under pressure. But we responded well and got back into the game,”
The Eagles will travel back to Glendale, Colorado, tomorrow for what will be a very busy week. The USA Select XV will play the Glendale Raptors on Wednesday August 10 at Infinity Park. Then on Saturday, August 13, the Eagles will take on Canada at the same venue, with kick-off at 7.15 P.M. This match will be broadcast LIVE – both online and on television – through Universal Sports.
“There were plenty of positives against Canada. Our scrum was very solid and our line-out fired well for the most part. We scored some good tries, and with more time together, the team cohesiveness will only improve. We have one week to fine tune things before the return match,” said O’Sullivan.
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Eagles Head Coach, Eddie O’Sullivan, has released his preliminary 50-man squad ahead of the Rugby World Cup in September.
“With the World Cup less than three months away we have put together an extended pool of players from which the final Eagles Squad of 30 players will emerge,” said O’Sullivan.
The names were submitted to the International Rugby Board as part of a requirement of Rugby World Cup planning. Each rugby union will then select their final squad of 30 players by the August 22 deadline.
O’Sullivan has had an opportunity to watch half of this squad in the recent Churchill Cup competition. Several players certainly impressed in the 32-25 victory over Russia, putting up their hands for RWC inclusion.
“The players who made the Churchill Cup Squad have the advantage of having been in camp together for the past three weeks,” said O’Sullivan, “But there are players who missed the Churchill Cup for various reasons.
With a busy July of fitness training ahead and three warm-up games in August, there will be plenty of opportunities for players to impress before we select the final RWC Squad near the end of August.”
The preliminary squad consists of 26 forwards and 24 backline players.
The Eagles will next assemble at the end of July, before taking on Canada on August 6 (BMO Field, Toronto, Canada) and August 13 (Infinity Park, Glendale, Colo.). The USA will then travel to Tokyo to play against Japan on August 21.
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USA wins shield. Photo by IRB.
After a rough start to the first day – a 21-12 loss to England and 36-5 thrashing by Wales – the U.S. Eagles did enough in the last game to qualify for a Bowl quarterfinal appearance. In that game, the Eagles broke away from a plucky Cook Island team to win 19-14.
Day Two did not begin well, with the U.S. falling to Scotland and being dropped to the Shield contest – and a date against their arch-rival Canada. But the Eagles looked like they were finally gelling, beating Canada and then France in the final of the Shield competition.
The silverware should give the Eagles some good confidence as they head to the Los Vegas Sevens and a potentially massive NBC TV audience, something that has never before happened. The Eagles acquitted themselves well in Wellington and were popular with the fans.
