USA Eagles captain reflects on defeat as attention turns to Canada

No athlete or team in sports like to lose, and the USA Eagles are no different. But captain Jason Damm has acknowledged the value defeats can have in highlighting key work-ons, with the Eagles looking to bounce back from a 63-14 defeat to Japan in Osaka.

The USA went through the July international window with an unbeaten 3-0 run in the all-new World Rugby Nations Cup, which included wins over three sides that have also punched their ticket to Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.

Coach Scott Lawrence then took charge of an Eagles-heavy USA XV, who assembled for a camp at the IMG Academy in Florida before facing an Argentina XV. That USA side came away with a hard-fought one-point win last month, with Marno Redelinghuys among the try-scorers.

As the USA continue to build towards their first Men’s World Cup appearance since 2019, these performances have given the Eagles plenty to build on. But so too has the 49-point loss to the Brave Blossoms in the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup semi-finals.

Japan raced out to a 28-0 lead after just 16 minutes and piled on a barrage of unanswered points during a dominant second half. The Brave Blossoms scored nine tries to two, stepping up on both sides of the ball by shutting the Eagles out in the second half.

“You learn a lot in any game of rugby. You can absolutely learn a lot from your losses,” Damm told reporters post-game.

“You get shown a lot of the areas that you have to improve and you don’t have to go looking as hard sometimes, it’s pretty obvious in losses like this what you need to work on.

“The other thing too is it just tests our character and our ability to stick to the plan when we’re not ahead. Sometimes it’s easy to buy into a plan and stick to it when you’re winning. Sometimes it can be a lot more difficult if you’re not on the wrong side of the scoreboard playing your plan.

“Finding the ways we can put more energy into it and execute at a higher level.”

Shilo Klein and Tavite Lopeti scored a try each in a 10-minute span, as the Eagles reduced their once 28-point deficit in half. Two converted tries separated the teams late in the second half, but a few key moments had a big say on the final result.

Soujirou Ootsuka crashed over for a try in the final play of the half, before Dylan Riley completed a double in the first minute of the second half. Then, USA captain Damm was shown a yellow card, and the home side made the most of their one-man advantage.

Jack Cornselsen and Esei Ha’angana crossed for tries before the Eagles returned to their full 15-man contingent. But the USA fought to the final whistle, playing with almost 70 per cent possession in the final 10 minutes.

The Eagles finished with a slightly superior tackle completion percentage from more attempts, lost fewer turnovers, and won 100 per cent of restarts received. But the set-piece was a talking point post-game, with the USA winning 64 per cent of their lineouts.

“We’ve got to make a big step forward,” Damm said.

“Lineout is something that we’ve been able to lean on, set-piece in general has been something we’ve been able to lean on in our previous Tests and today we got exposed a bit.

“It’s something that we as a forward pack take heavy… ultimately our platform is what sets the tone for the game. If we’re not winning the ball at the lineout, if we’re giving them easy access through scrum penalties or through mauls then we weigh that, we weigh that heavy.

“It’s a heavy load for us to go forward and we know we’ve got a lot of learnings and we can’t just rest on our platform, we’ve got to keep building.”