USA Comes from Behind to Upset Japan

The USA used a second half comeback to upset Japan 23-18 in Sacramento in the second round of the Pacific Nations Cup. The win marked the first time the Eagles have beaten Japan since October of 2003, a drought that spanned almost 12 years and five test matches.

The Eagles trailed by as many as nine points in the second half before scoring the final 14 points of the game to upset the World Rugby 12th ranked Japanese side. The Eagles got 18 points off the boot of flyhalf AJ MacGinty and a second half try from a rolling maul broke an 18-18 tie and served as the difference in the match.

Looking to avoid coming out of the blocks slowly, the USA came out firing in the first half and dominated territory and possession for most of the first forty minutes. The USA got on the board first with a penalty from MacGinty in the 6th minute. MacGinty followed with another penalty goal around the 18th minute to push the USA’s lead to 6-0.

Japan broke through in the 28th minute with a penalty goal from Harumichi Tatekawa to cut the USA’s lead to 6-3. MacGinty followed just minutes later to extend the Eagles’ lead to 9-3.

With a few minutes left in the half, Japan cut into the USA’s lead again with another penalty goal from Tatekawa. With time expiring on the half, Japan used a nifty move off of a scrum to set Akihito Yamada free to score in the corner. In a half where Japan spent most of their time under pressure in their own half, they came away with a 11-9 lead.

Bolstered by their strong finish to the first half, Japan came into the second frame on fire and quickly set the tempo and pace for the half. Japan pinned the Eagles deep into their own half and looked like they were ready to pull away. A yellow card to Taku Ngwenya put the USA down a man at a difficult time. With a scrum on the five meter line, Japan pushed No. 8 Koliniasi Holani over the line for their second try in the span of ten minutes. The conversion from Tatekawa gave Japan an 18-9 lead early in the second half. With a man advantage, it appeared as if Japan was poised to break the match wide open.

At that point, the USA’s defense doubled their efforts and slowly began to turn the tide on the match. The shift was similar to the tilt in momentum that the Eagles’ experienced in their near-miss comeback against Samoa last week. The only question is whether they would run out of time on their comeback as with against Samoa. Having stemmed the tide of Japan’s early second half surge and having Ngwenya in the bin, the Eagles started to chip away at Japan’s lead.

MacGinty slotted three penalty goals over a ten minute time span to knot the match at 18-18 with about fifteen minutes left to play. The Eagles broke the tie minutes later off of a rolling maul from a lineout on Japan’s five meter line. The try was credited to Andrew Durutalo, but could easily go down in the team-try category as a few players had their hands on the ball and 14 of the USA’s players joined the maul before it was touched down in the end zone.

Down 23-18, Japan put forth one last surge that saw them go through multiple phases and multiple scrums deep in the USA’s territory. With Japan assaulting the Eagles’ goal line, the USA was awarded a penalty as Japanese flanker Michael Broadhurst committed a cynical and blatant penalty at the ruck. The penalty not only gave the USA the ball back with less than a minute to play, but it also put Broadhurst in the sin bin. The USA won the ensuing lineout and MacGinty found touch to complete the upset.

The win marked an exceptional defensive effort for the USA, but the Eagles struggled offensively to crack Japan’s defense. They relied heavily on the boot of MacGinty and a Japanese side that was penalized 14 times during the match. The defensive effort for the USA was led by the forwards, who took on wave after wave of Japanese attack, especially in the second half. MacGinty was the difference in the match providing 18 points through penalty kicks, but the forwards deserve a lot of credit for the victory.

USA 23
Tries – A. Durutalo (68)
Pens – A. MacGinty 6 (7, 19, 31, 56, 62, 65)
Yellow cards – T. Ngwenya (47)

JAPAN 18
Tries – A. Yamada (39), K. Holani (49)
Cons – H. Tatekawa (50)
Pens – H. Tatekawa 2 (29, 37)
Yellow cards – M. Broadhurst (80)

USA
1 E. Fry 2 Z. Fenoglio (P. Thiel 60) 3 T. Lamositele 4 H. Smith (L. Stanfill 76) 5 C. Dolan 6 S. LaValla 7 A. Durutalo 8 D. Barrett (A. McFarland 56) 9 M. Petri (S. Suniula 74) 10 A. MacGinty 11 T. Ngwenya (Z. Test 72) 12 T. Palamo (F. Niua 65) 13 S. Kelly 14 B. Scully 15 C. Wyles (capt.)

Not used: N. Wallace, C. Baumann

JAPAN
1 K. Inagaki (H. Hirashima 74) 2 T. Kizu (H. Yuhara 50) 3 K. Hatakeyama (capt.) (S. Kakinaga 72) 4 H. Ono (T. Murata 60) 5 L. Thompson 6 J. Ives 7 M. Broadhurst 8 K. Holani 9 K. Uchida (A. Hiwasa 62) 10 H. Tatekawa 11 A. Yamada 12 R. Yamanaka (K. Ono 69) 13 K. Matsushima 14 K. Hesketh 15 Y. Fujita

Not used: K. Usami, T. Bennetts