Eagles overcome slow start to smash Chile

The USA overcame a sluggish first half to come away convincing 45-13 winners over Chile in the third round of the Americas Rugby Championship on Saturday. Both sides felt the searing heat in Fullerton with water breaks a frequent sight in the opening period.

Gary Gold had implored his Eagles to start strong and they responded with Mike Te’o sparking a try to Nate Augspurger with under five minutes on the clock. An offload from Te’o put Ryan Matyas in the clear and the flying winger found Augspurger on his inside for a try that would have delighted their future San Diego Legion teammates.

Will Magie and Tomás Ianiszewski both missed shots at goal before another score arrived. The Eagles worked their way into Chilean territory and though it was far from clinical a short pass from Nate Brakeley off the deck put Dylan Audsley into the corner for his first international try.

Rather than pulling away, however, unforced errors and numerous penalties conceded saw the USA on the back foot for the remainder of the half. Luckily for them Chile could score only a single penalty goal from Ianiszewski to make the score 10-3 at the break.

Whatever Gold said in the dressing room had an immediate affect as the Eagles came roaring out of the gate in the second half. Within a minute Audsley was in for his double and just as soon as Magie one he was kicking another one with Bryce Campbell clean through for a second try in two minutes.

The Cóndores caught the USA napping with a cheeky move at the front of a lineout opening space for Tomas Dussaillant to score, but the Eagles responded with two of their own. Te’o showed his pace to tear away and after Paul Lasike blasted a whole in the midfield, Malon Al-Jiboori crossed with his first touch of the ball in test rugby.

Chile would get one more consolation score and it was a beauty, a flowing attacking move that also got a bit of luck as the pass from Nikola Bursic was deflected into the hands of Ianiszewski. The fullback finished the two-on-one with Ítalo Zunino just beating the cover to the corner.

Lasike wrapped up the day with another bustling run, this time all the way into the end zone. It was a fitting end for the new cap on a day of debuts that saw Lasike, Al-Jiboori, Psalm Wooching, Brendan Daly, and Ruben de Haas welcomed to international rugby.

The USA now head to South American with three wins under their belt and will look to secure the ARC title starting in Brazil next weekend. Chile head home where the will host Uruguay in Santiago.

 

SCORING

USA 45
Tries – N. Augspurger (4’), D. Audsley 2 (21’, 41’), B. Campbell (42’), M. Te’o (52’), M. Al-Jiboori (63’), P. Lasike (77’)
Cons – W. Magie 4/6 (42’, 43’, 53’, 64’), B. Cima 1/1 (78’)

CHILE 13
Tries – T. Dussaillant (46’), Í. Zunino (74’)
Cons – T. Ianiszewski 0/1, J. Maturana 0/1
Pens – T. Ianiszewski 1/2 (28’)

 

TEAMS

USA
1 Huluholo Mo’ungaloa (17 Tony Purpura 70’), 2 James Hilterbrand (16 Dylan Fawsitt 65’), 3 Dino Waldren (18 Angus MacLellan 54’), 4 Nate Brakeley, 5 Ben Landry (19 Brendan Daly 57’), 6 Psalm Wooching, 7 Tony Lamborn (20 Malon Al-Jiboori 62’), 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Nate Augspurger (capt.) 65’) (21 Ruben de Haas, 10 Will Magie (22 Ben Cima 65’), 11 Ryan Matyas, 12 Bryce Campbell, 13 Dylan Audsley, 14 Josh Whippy (23 Paul Lasike 55’), 15 Mike Te’o

CHILE
1 Vittorio Lastra (17 Basilio Díaz 65’), 2 Tomás Dussaillant (16 Rodrigo Moya 70’), 3 Claudio Iturra (18 Marco Díaz 65’), 4 Nikola Bursic, 5 Mario Mayol (19 Thomas Orchard 70’), 6 Javier Richard (capt.), 7 Alfonso Escobar (20 Iñaki de Urruticoechea 58’), 8 Benjamín Soto, 9 Beltrán Vergara (21 Domingo Saavedra 65’), 10 José Tomás Baraona (22 José Tomás Maturana 65’), 11 Ítalo Zunino, 12 Francisco de la Fuente (23 Diego Ramírez 54’), 13 Javier Lavanderos, 14 Martín Raddatz, 15 Tomás Ianiszewski

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Chris Assmus (RC)