Georgia defeated the USA 22-7 Saturday evening in Tbilisi, capping off a 1-2 summer tour for the Eagles.
The performance by the USA overall was hit and miss. Several issues from last week’s loss to Portugal saw improvement, including better intent with ball-in-hand, better kick chase and defense on counterattacks, and fewer mistakes.
But there were still some mistakes, often at crucial moments.
Get Your Kicks
The game began with some high balls back and forth as both teams were looking for an advantage. Georgia got the ball of the early exchange thanks to a penalty against the Eagles and they took a lineout and set up the maul. The Eagles defended very well, and while they were penalized, Georgia opted to avoid a maul the second time and tapped.
Once again the USA defense was strong on their try line and when the Lelos went wide Christian Dyer reached up and knocked a skip pass up into the air before the ball ended in fullback Chris Mattina’s hands. The Eagles got out of trouble from there.
But instead of being able to change the momentum, the Eagles got caught out with a holding-on penalty and back came Georgia. The Lelos tried the maul again, and while the Eagle forwards sacked the jumper, the ball was sent wide where a smart blocker line helped take Tavite Lopeti out of the play and that left wing Kaki Tabutsadze with a one-on-one with Mattina. A little shake-and-bake and the winger had his 30th test try in the corner.
Up 5-0 Georgia was very quick on the ball and with that the Eagles found little front-foot ball. Much of the first half saw scrumhalf Ruben de Haas launching box kicks to try to put the Lelos under pressure. As the kicking exchanges went on both Mattina and flyhalf Luke Carty produced some very good kicks to keep the exchange at a stalemate.
But then a really avoidable mistake. Carty took a mark in his 22 and then booted the ball down the field. However, the mark was not take correctly—apparently some USA players were in front of the ball. So suddenly Georgia had an attacking scrum in the USA 22.
It was a huge turnaround. Georgia eventually got a penalty, took the lineout, and mauled it over. Trytime, and with the conversion Georgia led 12-0 at 27 minutes.
A Spark
Already the Eagles had encountered a setback with starting No. 8 Thomas Tu’avao being forced to leave due to injury. His replacement, Luke White, had started the previous two games, but still he wasn’t expected to take the field after 13 minutes.
In trouble and not looking threatening with the ball, the Eagles turned up the heat. They ran a sequence with some good, hard running and the ball coming out of the rucks quickly. Funny how that works. There was a little space on the edge and some snappy passing from Carty and Mattina put Dyer in space down the sideline. The wing did very well to make ground and then he saw De Haas running a smart support line and passed inside for the scrumhalf to take it 25 meters to score.
It was a brilliant try, a glimpse of what the USA can do, but it was also not repeated.
Carty converted and it was 12-7.
