USA Eagles take lessons from Japan defeat after showing ‘character’

USA coach Scott Lawrence has highlighted the “character” and “grit” shown by the Eagles during their 63-14 Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup semi-final defeat, with younger players gaining experience in the hit-out against Japan.

Japan punched their ticket to the Pacific Nations Cup Final next weekend in Tokyo with a clinical performance, kicking off their point-scoring blitz in the first minute. The Brave Blossoms ran in four tries inside 16 minutes, as they took charge with a 28-0 lead.

It was one-way traffic during the first quarter at Osaka’s Hanazono Rugby Stadium, but the USA clawed their way back into the contest before the break. Shilo Klein and Tavite Lopeti crossed for a try each, as the Eagles cut their once 28-point deficit in half.

But there were a few key moments later on that seemed to have a big say on the match, with Soujirou Ootsuka scoring in the final play of the first half. Japan also scored a minute into the second term, before the USA lost their captain to a yellow card.

Eagles captain Jason Damm was sent to the sin bin, and the Brave Blossoms made the most of their one-man advantage. Jack Cornelsen and Esei Ha’angana got on the scoresheet before the visitors returned to their full 15-man contingent.

“Give them credit for the character to stay in it. The initial speed of the game got them a bit behind, so they adjusted to that,” Lawrence said.

“There’s a little bit of grit and there’s a bit of adjustment to the game. They did a good job with that.

“We thought going into the second half, we expected another fast start in the first 20, the third quarter, and ultimately ended up with a yellow card and that was probably the difference in that block. We thought we could fight out way back into the game.”

Sam Greene dived over for Japan’s ninth try of the match, and the fullback added the extras to extend his individual point-scoring tally to 23. Japan came close to scoring again but there was ultimately no change to the scoreboard in the final 15 minutes.

The Eagles finished the match with almost 70 per cent possession in the final 10 minutes, but conceded more penalties than the Brave Blossoms, and missed 23 tackles from more than 180 attempts on the night.

Five Japan players were ranked in the top six for total carries, with Greene and winger Inoka Burua leading the way with at least 88 running metres each. Kanji Shimokawa finished with a team-high 16 tackles too, with Harry Hockings the next best for Japan with 14.

“[Japan] were just clinical this evening, I thought. I think we were well beaten in most areas of the game,” Lawrence told reporters.

“We’ll take the learnings from this. We exposed a few players to international touring and rugby and that’s an important part of the experience. We’ll take that and we’ll take the lessons from it and move forward into next week. We’ve got our friends to the north here in a weeks’ time.”