USA edge Chile in extraordinary first leg of RWC Qualifier

The USA edged Chile 22-21 in an extraordinary first leg of their World Cup Qualifier Series in front of a partisan crowd at the Estadio Santa Laura in Santiago. Driving rain throughout left the pitch water-logged and saw both teams relying heavily on their kicking game. A power outage in the second half added to what was a ferocious contest for the full 80 minutes.

Simple hands down the line gave the USA the first score of the game. AJ MacGinty, Bryce Campbell, and Marcel Brache combined to put Christian Dyer into the right corner. Despite the terrible conditions MacGinty somehow landed the conversion from the sideline to make it a full seven.

MacGinty then had a shot at goal from straight in front but couldn’t find the mark. Instead the Chileans responded with two penalty goals of their own. Santiago Videla chipped over the first from inside the Eagles 22-meter line, then landed a second from further out to make it a one-score game.

A long-range shot from MacGinty again went wide, and then came a controversial moment. Ruben de Haas kicked the ball long and it rolled in-goal. Dyer had the pace to inch ahead of José Ignacio Larenas and appeared to get fingers on the ball, but the TMO ruled it a knock-on and the Cóndores held out to halftime just one point behind their guests.

The Eagles opened a little breathing room early in the second half. From a lineout drive Joe Taufete’e broke to the right and slid over the line for a try. MacGinty couldn’t find the posts with his conversion attempt but the USA were up by six points.

Another attack saw Videla binned for an intentional knock-on, but the Eagles couldn’t take advantage. Instead the crowd erupted as Rodrigo Fernández received a kick ahead and proceeded to weave his way through the entire Eagles team for a sensational individual try. With Videla still off, Matías Garafulic stepped up to take the kick but the flags stayed down.

When Videla returned shortly after, he would land a penalty goal to give the Cóndores their first lead of the game. The USA the won a penalty in Chilean territory and opted for the corner. They won the throw-in, but just as Ignacio Silva put a crunching hit on David Ainu’u the stadium lights went out and the referee was forced to pause the game.

After several minutes the light came back on and the players returned to the pitch. After winning two penalties at the scrum, the Eagles opted to take the three points on offer and MacGinty this time was on song to nudge the USA back in front.

Not long after Kapeli Pifeleti broke from the back of a maul and barged over, with MacGinty’s sideline effort sealed the victory. There was still time for the Condores to score, however, and they made it count with Videla crossing in the 80th minute after the forwards had thrown everything at the Eagles.

The USA will take a one-point lead back home with the second leg to be played at a sold-out Infinity Park next Saturday. Whichever team wins will punch their ticket to Rugby World Cup 2023, with the loser accepting a spot in November’s last-gasp Repechage tournament.

 

SCORING

CHILE 21
Tries – R. Fernandez (51′), S. Videla (80′)
Cons – M. Garafulic 0/1, S. Videla 1/1 (80’+1′)
Pens – S. Videla 3/3 (18′, 23′, 57′)
YC – S. Videla (44′)

USA 22
Tries – C. Dyer (7′), J. Taufete’e (45′), K. Pifeleti (74′)
Cons – A. MacGinty 2/3 (8′, 75′)
Pens – A. MacGinty 1/2 (67′)

 

TEAMS

CHILE
1 Javier Carrasco (17 Salvador Lues 56′), 2 Augusto Bohme (16 Diego Escobar 56′), 3 Matías Dittus (18 Vittorio Lastra 56′), 4 Santiago Pedrero (23 Ignacio Silva 60′), 5 Javier Eissmann (19 Augusto Sarmiento 60′), 6 Martín Sigren (capt.), 7 Clemente Saavedra, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 9 Lukas Carvallo, 10 Rodrigo Fernández, 11 Franco Velarde (21 Marcelo Torrealba 44′), 12 José Ignacio Larenas, 13 Matías Garafulic, 14 Nicolás Garafulic, 15 Santiago Videla

Not used: 20 Thomas Orchard, 22 Luca Strabucchi

USA
1 David Ainu’u (17 Chance Wenglewski 75′), 2 Joe Taufete’e (16 Kapeli Pifeleti 68′), 3 Paul Mullen (18 Angus MacLellan 75′), 4 Greg Peterson (21 Tevita Tameilau 77′), 5 Nick Civetta (19 Siaosi Mahoni 58′), 6 Benjamín Bonasso, 7 Hanco Germishuys (20 Jason Damm 62′), 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Ruben de Haas (22 Nate Augspurger 75′), 10 AJ MacGinty (Capt.), 11 Martin Iosefo (23 Luke Carty 68′), 12 Bryce Campbell, 13 Tavite Lopeti, 14 Christian Dyer, 15 Marcel Brache

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistants: Hollie Davidson (UK) & Moe Chaudhry (Canada)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)