slide 1

NOTE: Only paying subscribers have access to locked content. LEARN MORE.

Eagles Improve to 2-0 in South Africa

  • 14 Dec 2019
  • 237 Views

The USA improve to 2-0 at Cape Town, the second stop on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, after a 21-7 win over England (0-2). The victory secures a berth to the Cup quarterfinals, and the team’s final pool play match against Australia (2-0), which beat Ireland 29-0 in round two, will determine seed.

RELATED: USA Shut Out Ireland in Cape Town Opener

England attempted to disrupt the Americans’ game with an invasive defense, and while there were successes, the USA remained relatively calm and built three solid tries. England wasn’t able to generate much on offense and scored in injury time.

It took nearly three minutes for the scoreboard to alight, and the opportunity came after an England handling error in the Eagles’ half. The Americans worked a few phases off the scrum, and then Alev Kelter cooly stepped around the fast-up defender to break from the USA’s end. The chase was on but the center had the legs to finish out the long-range try and conversion, 7-0.

The restart didn’t go 10, so England resumed play at the 50. Ilona Maher made the midfield tackle and the England support lost its footing, allowing the defense to swarm and poach the ball. A not-releasing penalty followed, and Kelter’s kick to touch set up a lineout at the England 40. But that fast-up defense paid dividends and forced Cheta Emba into a knock-on as the half wore down. England got the line break and made ground out wide, but a pass too far backward ended up in touch to end the half.

Kelter took the second-half kickoff nicely and evaded tacklers to the England 40 meter, but knocked on in the tackle. The teams traded possession on the 40 twice more, before a USA scrum moved to Kristi Kirshe at center. The reserve burst through Abbie Brown and nearly got to the try line untouched, but a brilliant hustle from Celia Quansah prevented the immediate grounding. Initially it looked like England had held up the try but the endline touch judge saw Kirshe wriggle around and dot the ball down. Nicole Heavirland converted for the 14-0 lead.

Kristen Thomas got up for the restart and the rebound off the flyer’s foot found Kirshe for the clean-up. Maher tore past Jodie Ounsley and into open space, and then Heather Fisher coughed up a penalty for not supporting body weight in the ruck. The penalty set up a penalty kick to touch and 10-meter lineout, which worked hands-out wide to Naya Tapper for the easy try. Heavirland kicked a second conversion for the 21-0 lead.

There was less than a minute to play when the restart went up. England gifted possession with a knock-on but then a bad pass out of the subsequent USA scrum put in motion a handling error in the backs, handing the ball back to England. The USA heavily applied its pressure defense but then a skip pass to Deborah Fleming out wide saw the speedster with a little bit of space. The reserve just escaped Kirshe’s diving tackle and scored England’s lone try in injury time: 21-7 with Brown’s conversion.

Next up: Australia @ 7:57 a.m. Eastern

USA Starters

Lauren Doyle, Cheta Emba, Jordan Gray-Matyas, Nicole Heavirland, Alev Kelter, Ilona Maher, Naya Tapper.

USA 21

Tries: Kelter, Kirshe, Tapper

Cons: Heavirland 2, Kelter

England 7

Tries: Fleming

Cons: Brown

Article Categories:
USA

Leave a Reply