USA Rugby escaped Saturday evening with a 33-28 win over Brazil in Austin, Texas. It wasn’t a pretty win, though the Eagles had their moments. But emerging with the win is a relief, as the Americans seemed on the verge of surrendering the lead in the final minutes. Regardless, the narrow win over Brazil disabuses the notion that the loss to Argentina XV was a fluke, as Argentina beat them 54-3.

American Pie

Such is life as an observer of American rugby. After a 2018 that left us hoping for the best, 2019 quickly reintroduced us to reality. The lopsided loss to Argentina XV was bad. The narrow win at home against Brazil feels nearly as bad.

USA’s Rugby World Cup team is coming into focus and it may not be what Americans were hoping only a few months ago. There’s a lot going right for the Eagles. The offense looks pretty, at times. Mikey Te’o’s try off a Paul Lasike offload was highlight reel material. The Eagles are working in space better and keeping the ball alive when they’ve won a line break.

But other game elements look problematic. Specifically, the scrum, the defense, and the kicking game all need work. All the fancy attacking lines won’t amount to much if they get put on the back foot from the kicking game and can’t defend a team that can move the ball wide.

Hanco & Te’o

Two players seemed to create every opportunity against Brazil. Hanco Germishuys and Mikey Te’o both battled all night, making things happen for the Eagles. They broke tackles, they broke the gain line, they ran support lines that capitalized on existing momentum. They, in short, brought it to the Brazilians.

They’ll need help. Particularly from the forwards. Aside from Hanco, the forwards did little to contribute to the Eagles’ win. The scrum was under pressure all night. Goal line attacking did little. The maul looked alright but never turned into a try. The forward pack was solid defensively and John Quill won the key turnover at the end that sealed the deal. But all in all, a better effort will be required from #1-#8 to beat better teams.

Landry Sees Yellow

For the second straight week, an Eagle was carded for a dangerous/cynical play when breaking free from a ruck. I was clear after Argentina XV that, in my view, a stamp is grounds for a red card. I am less convinced about this yellow for Ben Landry. His arm was being held in the ruck, he wanted to break free, and he used his forearm in a downward swinging motion to achieve it.

So often you see a player in the ruck being cheeky and grabbing a defender, bringing the defender into the ruck against his will. And 100 times out of 100 you see that defender swing his arm downward to break the grip. Usually, the offensive player just releases to avoid having his arm smashed. But, if the offensive player didn’t release and was, instead, hit by the defender’s arm, are we suggesting that would be a yellow card offense? Doubtful.

There was no contact with the head and Landry was breaking free of a hold. To me, that is play on.

The Rise of Brazil

None of this should take away from the game Brazil played. They were excellent. They did well in the set piece, they were savvy around the breakdown, and they were smart with their passing distribution.

Brazil has a bright future if they stay on this trajectory, and at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they won out through the Americas Rugby Championship.

Lessons Learned

This was not the Eagles’ first side, and that should be remembered. But they had enough first side players to be disappointed with how close they came to losing.

Still, Gary Gold will no doubt take lessons from this. They need to scrum better. They need to do better with tactical kicking. And they need to be able to defend after a line break. The Eagles have not been able to reorganize and line up after losing the gain line, and opponents are exposing that with simple through the hands passing. The first effort is there, but the recovery needs work.

All this needs to be addressed, or the Pacific Nations Cup is going to be a demoralizing slog.

But, in the end, they won. It wasn’t the domination Eagles fans might have wanted, but it’s still a 2-0 test record in 2019. Something to build on.