USA U18s Hope to Take Canada Lesson into Corendon Finale
USA U18s Hope to Take Canada Lesson into Corendon Finale
The USA U18s will be looking to pick themselves up after a tie they feel they should have won.
Sitting 1-0-1 at the Corendon Summer Tour, the USA squad learned a lesson in how the other team wants to beat you, even if they lost earlier. And they also learned a lesson ins staying chill while closing out the game. Once time is up, you need to be calm, and make sure everyone is still treating any play, a scrum, a kick to touch, anything, as they normally would.
The replay of the game against Canada, by the way, is here>>
When you look at the final play, which resulted in Canada scoring to tie the game, you will see several mistakes. Yes they probably should have tapped the ball and kicked it dead—backwards—to end the game.
But in addition, the USA team needed to be ready to chase the kick. They were not. When Jonty Lee tapped the ball eight USA players were standing in the middle of the field with their hands on their hips. Two were on the right side and out of the play. One stationed on the right had started moving left because he surmised the ball was going to be kicked left, and one forward was reacting that way. One was kicking the ball. That left two players on the left side available to chase. Both did, but had too many players and too much territory to cover.
Try Canada. (It's worth noting that the back who had started to move left, fullback Ryan Putka, kept moving left and while he couldn't stop the try, he was the reason Morgan Di Nardo was forced to touch down in the corner, which ended up preserving the tie.)
As we said ... a harsh lesson for everyone.
But the beauty of a tournament like this is that you get another shot at playing the way you want.
Exits
Head Coach Dom Wareing took a little issue with GRR's assertion that the U18s played too much in their own 22, saying the USA team played only 16 phases in their red zone, averaging only two phases per possession. However, he did acknowledge there were key moments when they didn't do that.
"There were two instances when we did try to play out of there and did so poorly, which cost us; otherwise pretty efficient."
That, really, was a function of getting away from what got them a 22-5 lead.
A Lead Can Disappear
Wareing said the team will make no major changes or adjustments when they play Netherlands on Sunday, except "get back to the way we have been practicing and preparing. We didn't ask many questions of the Canada defense on many occasions after the early scores and failed to keep the pressure on them by playing to our strengths. Instead we got one-dimensional and predictable."
Often when players say they took their foot off the gas, it isn't really about effort; it's more often just a lack of using the tools in their toolbox. The USA team needed to paly like it was tied when they were far ahead, and when they were ahead by a small margin, needed to play like that, not as if they were losing.
"We'll aim to not repeat the same mistakes," said Wareing. "We're disappointed not to have won but credit to Canada on taking their chances well and pushing us to the final whistle."
So Sunday the USA plays Netherland, which comes into the game 2-0 after close wins against Canada (27-20) and Belgium (19-15). Netherlands has size. They're the tallest nation in the world, and you can see that in 4, 5, 7, and 8. Tey have power and strength in the front row, although shorter front-rowers can sometimes get leverage under taller ones. They defend well. Netherlands was better than Belgium and perhaps stronger than the scoreline indicates. They gave up a penalty try on a rather stupid late tackle, and take that play out of it they might have won by more.
All of that might indicate that the USA will see better value in keeping the ball alive, and making the Netherlands defense work hard. A scrum-lineout battle might not be their best event. A battle where the USA keeps their composure throughout would be good.
