Eagles Have Job to Do vs Samoa, and Then They Wait
Eagles Have Job to Do vs Samoa, and Then They Wait
With everything on the line, the USA Women's National Team has just a couple of days to prepare for a crucial Rugby World Cup match against Samoa.
The situation is clear: beat Samoa by a lot, and hope Australia loses to England by a lot, and wait for the tiebreaker gods to reach their verdict of which team makes the quarterfinals. The timing isn't in the USA's favor: the Eagles play before Australia, so the Aussies will know what they need to do in order to get the job done. If we were to advise them, we'd say, score four tries. That puts it out of reach for the Wallaroos.
But the Eagles can't think about any of that.
Here's what's going on this week.
Tess Feury is in the roster now as Bulou Mataitonga is injured. That's just reward for Feury, who has been an excellent servant of the USA program for years. Even if the USA makes the quarterfinals, Mataitonga will not be fit to play after an injury sustained in training.
"Tess is an experienced player who is also a leader on and off the field, so we are excited to have her join us for the Samoa week and looking forward to her integrating back into the squad," said USA Head Coach Sione Fukofuka. "Bulou will not be available for selection moving forward. She will be missed on the field. Her value to the team though is more than just her on-field performances and it is great that we can keep her with us for the remainder of the World Cup, supporting the team off the field.”
Looking back to the tie with Australia and the job ahead against Samoa, center/flyhalf Gabby Cantorna said the team has taken a lot of positives from how they played against the Wallaroos.
"Our physicality and the way we handled wet conditions [were big positives]," said Cantorna. "We know we have that ability to go through teams when we want to. So it’s about layering that with our other skill points. "If you just take care of the process and play the way we know we can, the points will come. If you go chancing points and do things that are uncharacteristic you probably make it that bit harder. We’ve been pretty honest with what we need to do."
Samoa, added Cantorna, plays with physicality and a lot of pride.
"They're not going to back down, they’re also hunting tries, points, and their own special moments. It's going to be an electric match."
The idea of not getting caught up in chasing points is an intelligent approach. The USA needs urgency, but also patient, intensity, but cool heads.
"We know the outcome we’re chasing but I don’t think that changes anything in our playing style because we know what works," said wing Erica Coulibaly, who has the potential to break out for tries in this match. "We have to execute every opportunity to get as many points as we can."
Player of the game between the USA and Australia, Freda Tafuna (three tries, although she said Hope Rogers deserved credit for one of them), echoed Coulibaly's sentiments.
"We're confident, but we can't be too confident," said the two-time Sorensen Award winner. "We know Samoa is a physical team, so we've got to come with more physicality against them and play our game that we know we can play."
Captain Kate Zackary wants to see the fight she saw against Australia.
"We knew it was going to be a back-and-forth match," the skipper said of the Wallaroo match. "We talked about it all week long and that's what you got. The thing I am most proud about is every time we got hit, we hit back a little bit harder. It's a trait we haven't shown in many games and something we will carry into next week. The biggest message is we fought back ... we've earned ourselves another chance for the quarterfinals so no job is done for now."
Meanwhile, it's worth pointing out that Samoa, 0-2 and no tries scored, isn't too happy about the situation they're in and they're heavily motivated to cause the USA problems.
"We had to ask ourselves some tough questions after week one against Australia," said Head Coach Ramsey Tomokino. "When we reflected post-game, the team felt disconnected and shocked at how things had gone. In contrast, they felt connected all the way through the England game. Obviously, we know it was a big score, but the journey into the stadium, the players being applauded on, it was just fantastic. Then, post-game, hearing people comment on how we didn’t give up and kept fighting to the end — that’s exactly what we wanted."
Against the USA, Samoa has a dog in the fight for the quarterfinal spot.
"We want to look after our region; we want to look after Oceania; we want to make sure Australia [go through]," said Tomokino. "So, it's only right that I send a message to them saying, you've got to do your bit against England, and we'll do our best that we can against USA."
The challenge has been thrown down then.
USA vs Samoa on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Saturday, September 6 8:30AM ET.
Australia vs England on Paramount+, September 6 Noon ET.
