Somehow the USA Men’s 7s team is into the Cup Quarterfinals at the Glasgow 7s, despite starting off horribly, and then having to weather a comeback that could have unsettled it all.

The Eagles were just plan bad against Canada in the opening game of the entire tournament, as they couldn’t hold onto the ball, seemed scattered on defense, and lost 40-0.

Later on, USA star Zack Test would be blunt in his assessment: “We need to show up on Game 1.”

But with that game out of the way, the Eagles picked it up. Nice offloading out of the tackle and some excellent support running, especially from Maka Unufe, led to a rout of Japan, 38-7. Test scored two tries, including one where Madison Hughes was in-goal but passed back to Test to get the ball under the posts.

Unufe, Hughes, Andrew Durutalo, and Matai Leuta also scored for the USA.

Meanwhile, Argentina, which had looked very iffy in tying Japan, defeated Canada 21-12 to put everything in doubt. The USA, having lost big in their first game, and then given up a soft try to Japan late in that game, were not in a good position with regard to points difference.

So it came down to the final game of the day. A loss or tie to Argentina would put the USA in the lower eight. In a grinding start neither team could get over the line until the very end of the first half. The USA defense, highlighted by a tackle from Durutalo that forced a knock-on just before the goal line, was solid. Perry Baker finally got the USA on the scoresheet right after that, taking a pass from the scrum deep in his 22, fending off a couple of tacklers and blazing the rest of the way. for a 7-0 lead.

And then after Danny Barrett forced a holding-on penalty, Unufe raced through a gap from a set penalty move to make it 14-0 at the break.

Unufe would score another on some nice support running, but then the Eagles started to lose their way. They gave up a series of penalties and a try, and then Carlin Isles didn’t release the ball in the tackle, showing the impatience of trying to score one more try. Argentina scored one more, but it wasn’t enough.

By winning 21-14, the USA finished 2nd in their pool behind 2-1 Canada, who beat Japan easily. Argentina were very close, and had they beaten Japan, they would have pushed the USA down to 3rd.

Test said later that the team has to start off right on Day Two, because they want to compete for the Cup, not the Plate, but to do that they need to put in a full game, which they didn’t on Saturday in Glasgow.