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In their second of as many home internationals in June 2018, the USA took-on Scotland in Houston, Texas. The match was a Tier 2 vs Tier 1 putting, making Scotland the odds-on-favorites for victory. Yet with the USA now having a vastly superior player base than in the past there was always the prospect of an upset.
As it turned out the USA Eagles made history. They did so in heroic fashion with Head Coach Gary Gold assembling and preparing his troops for the battle. His team was not one with a sprinkling of professional players. Instead it was one covered with players from Major League Rugby in the USA, and players contracted abroad.
The combination of talent came together perfectly and was even represented as such on the scoring sheet. Both Joe Taufete’e and Hanco Germishuys scored two tries each – players from the English Premiership and Major League Rugby respectively.
Fly half AJ MacGinty was another English Premiership player involved. The fly half put in arguably the greatest performance of all time in an Eagles 10 shirt.
All told the performance was one to suggest that the debate about whether, or not, the USA is on the rise has now been answered with an emphatic yes. It sees attention now turn to RWC 2019 with the USA set to face Argentina, England, France, and Tonga.
The Eagles highly-demanding pool sees four teams tanked higher that the USA, three of which are of the Tier 1 variation. Yet as demonstrated against Scotland, and in general in June 2018, the USA is not looking to just make up the numbers.
For a complete match report click here.
