Kitakyusho, Japan—A late penalty goal from McKenzie Hawkins ensured the USA salvaged a 17-17 tie with Japan on a hot Sunday evening in Kitakyushu.
The Eagles probably had the run of play in this game, and had several very good opportunities to score that didn't quite come off. Added to that was Head Coach Sione Fukofuka's game plan which often looked to have forward pods take passes right near the gainline. That works nicely when the timing is very good and the ball is caught just before contact, allowing the ballcarrier to potentially break a tackle and move the defense back. But when one of those criteria isn't there—and the humidity and heat made the ball hard to handle—then it results in balls lost in contact.
That happened a bit too often for the USA, especially when inside the Japanese attacking zone. On the plus side, they were in the attacking zone several times. Both sides tried to attack wide despite the ball being difficult to handle but they also worked to use the kicking game when nothing was on. Hawkins and captain Tess Feury did well to handle kicks, but it was up to Hawkins almost exclusively to answer back with the boot. One kicking exchange 10 minutes in resulted in a goalline dropout by the USA and that was just what Japan wanted.
Hawkins sent the dropkick directly into touch, which resulted in a Japanese lineout five meters from the USA line. The Sakura mauled it closer and prop Wako Kitano picked up, stayed low, and was over just like that. Flyhalf Ayasa Otsuka slotted the very difficult conversion and Japan was up 7-0.
After that the USA started to get more good field position. No. 8 Freda Tafuna featured heavily in the ground-gainers but overall it didn't really matter who took the ball up—when the USA was set quickly to take a pass from scrumhalf Olivia Ortiz or just picked up and surged on, they asked serious questions from the Japanese defense.
The Sakura was up for it, but still the Eagles camped out in Japan's 22 for about 15 minutes. They just didn't get any points for it. Finally a break from Atumata Hingano got them back in scoring position and while Japan defended, they were penalized. The Sakura was very good at subtly slowing ball down in the ruck, something most of the relatively new ruck laws have been designed to stop. Finally a high tackle penalty set up a lineout for the USA. Tafuna took the throw brilliantly and off the maul vice captain and hooker Kathryn Treder popped off the back and cut between two tacklers to score.
Or did she? A look at the replay by the officials showed that Tafuna had bobbled the ball and it had bounced off another player before Tafuna regathered, making it a knock-on and accidental offside. No try. But Japan wasn't out of trouble. A bruising run from Tafuna helped them go forward and then, after a few phases, Ortiz hinted at passing, saw the gap the fake created, and zipped in from 10 meters out. A brilliant piece of vision from the Davenport #9 and with the Hawkins conversion it was 7-7.
The USA had equalized, but it had taken them the better part of 20 minutes.
Japan answered almost immediately. The Eagles tried to clear from their 22 but center Mana Furuta raced in to block the kick from Hawkins. The ball rolled on toward the USA line but Furuta couldn't quite pick it up. Still the USA was now on the back foot, and when the Japanese counter-rucked well enough to force a penalty, the Sakura tapped quickly and were wide and close within three passes.
Feury was there to make the tackle, but a quick pick and pass put wing Kanako Kobayashi over in the corner. The conversion was away but now with three minutes left in the half Japan led 12-7.
