BRIGHTON, UK - The USA’s bid to win two or three pool games at the Rugby World Cup was dealt a massive blow Sunday as the Eagles were defeated by Samoa 25-16 in Brighton. 

Man of the match Tim Nanai-Williams was brilliant as an attacking forced from fullback, while the Eagles kept getting into penalty trouble, giving up 11 penalties while Samoa was penalized just four times.

Chris Wyles goes in for the first USA try.

Samoa's attack was always dangerous.

With Tusi Pisi’s goalkicking once again on-song for Samoa, the Eagles undercut their own opportunities.

Both teams tried to play expansive rugby, but the physicality of the game led to plenty of mistakes, as well.

Pisi opened up the scoring with a penalty from close to halfway - the Eagles guilty of not rolling away in the ruck - and then set up the opening try. The Samoans pressured the USA 22, and then, just eight meters from the line, Pisi put a grubber past Samu Manoa and Al McFarland. 

Nanai-Williams bolted through to grouch down to make it 8-0 for Samoa. Soon it was 11-0 as Pisi knocked over another kick.

The Eagles struggled to put phases together, but did bring enough pressure to get a penalty goal from AJ MacGinty. But eventually showed what they can produce. Greg Peterson stole a Samoan lineout near the USA 22. Chris Wyles tried to clear the ball, but it was blocked back into the USA forwards who smartly shipped the ball along the line to MacGinty. The flyhalf now had a four-on-one but rapidly disappearing space. He fed Seamus Kelly, who cut back and offloaded to Wyles, who had raced in to support from the opposite wing, and the captain was over for a brilliant try.

So that made it 11-8. Pisi slotted over another goal at halftime, but still it seemed as if the USA would come back in the second half.

But it was Samoa, not the USA, that would put on the points in the second half.

The Eagles tried to run through the Samoan defense in order to find more space behind them. Center Thretton Palamo and wing Takudzwa Ngwenya both had chances, but the Eagles couldn’t make it produce points.

Six minutes into the second half, another grubber from Pisi have another chance for Nanai-Williams. Ngwenya raced in from the off wing to disrupt everything, but Samoa retained the ball in the ruck and quickly popped to captain Ofisa Treviranus, who was over. 

So that made it 19-8. The two teams battled on, with Samoa wing Alesana Tuilagi causing problems for the Eagles. But both held on and traded penalty goals. Then a cruel call as the USA had the ball and won a ruck but were penalized for McFarland blocking a defender from getting at scrumhalf Mike Petri. This was harsh, since McFarland could have been argued to be a part of a very sloppy ruck, the Samoan defender was nowhere near Petri, and players in that position are routinely not penalized. Nevertheless, it was called, the USA lost the ball, and Mike Stanley hit a brilliant kick to make it 25-12.

But there was life for the Eagles yet. With seven minutes to go the USA worked their way down to the Samoa line, and with the referee calling advantage for a penalty, replacement prop Chris Baumann scored his first try for the USA, picking up, staying low, and getting to the line.

MacGinty’s conversion missed by a whisker, and Samoa held on from there. 

It was not what the USA wanted.They managed to avoid the long breakaway tries by Samoa, but they could not get on the right side of the referee, and as a result put themselves in a hole in both halves, giving up eight unanswered points at the beginning of each period. And maybe the penalty count was the killer, but it was also a lot of little things - not straight in the lineout when the throw seemed to be within parameters, that always seemed to undercut the USA attack.

"Our penalty count was at least 20 points - that killed us,” said USA lock Greg Peterson. “Samoa kept moving us back into our 22, we need to control our penalty count and control our discipline, and then we'll do much better."

"We're a bit rusty, and our execution wasn't quite spot-on,” added Samoa’s Kahn Foltuali’i. “The USA came out firing, as we knew they would. We knew this pool was going to be tough."

"One of the things in the plan, especially with Pacific Islands, is that you don't want to give away possession. We did, and that put us on the back foot,” added Eagles Head Coach Mike Tolkin. "We played well enough to convince us that we can make the quarter-finals. We put ourselves deep in their half and we were in positions to win the game. We need to consolidate on those moments."

USA 16

Tries: Wyles, Baumann

Pens: MacGinty 2

Samoa 25

Tries: Nanai-Williams, Treviranus

Pens: Pisi 4, Stanley

Lineups

SAMOA    Pos   USA
S Taulafo  1 Eric Fry  
WO Avei   2 Zach Fenoglio  
AI Perenise  3 Titi Lamositele  
T Paulo  4 Hayden Smith  
I Tekori  5  Greg Peterson  
M Faasavalu  6 Al McFarland 
J Lam 7 Andrew Durutalo 
C O Treviranus 8 Samu Manoa 
K Fotuali'i 9 Mike Petri 
T Pisi 10 AJ MacGinty 
AT Tuilagi   11  Chric Wyles  
C R Lee-Lo 12 Thretton Palamo 
PL Perez 13  Seamus Kelly 
K Pisi 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya 
TT Nanai-Williams  15  Blaine Scully  

SUBSTITUTIONS
MD Matu'u  16  Phil Thiel  
V Afatia  17 Olive Kilifi  
CA Johnston   18  Chris Baumann  
F Levave  19 Cam Dolan  
A Faosiliva  20 Danny Barrett  
V Afemai 21 Shalom Suniula 
MJ Stanley 22 Folau Niua 
F Autagavaia  23  Brett Thompson  

OFFICIALS
REFEREE George Clancy
ASSISTANT REFEREE Jaco Peyper
ASSISTANT REFEREE Federico Anselmi
TV MATCH OFFICIAL Graham Hughes