In front of a new record crowd for a USA Women's home test match, the Eagles beat Fiji Saturday in DC in a game that was much, much closer than it needed to be.

Five tries to three saw the Eagles home 31-24, but they did squander a 26-7 lead and, had they executed a bit better, could have run away with it in front of 15,198 at Audi Field.

Strong Beginning

Everything started right for the USA. With a large crowd behind them and the weather cooperating they kicked off and quickly forced a knock-on.

From that scrum Ilona Maher went on a half break, energizing the crowd in short order. The Eagles were on top of the action immediately, working the offloads—an especially nice one from lock Erica Jarrell Searcy—and they surged down to the Fijian tryline. From there, who else but Hope Rogers would pick up and dive over for an early try. McKenzie Hawkins converted and it was 7-0.

The USA stayed on the front foot after a nice clearance by Kelter on the restart receipt. They worked those extra passes to make Fiji work, and a nice run in traffic from wing Emily Henrich opened up a chance for Maher, but Fiji just held on.

As the Eagles pushed closer and closer to the line, Fiji was penalized, and ultimately yellow-carded, for a  deliberate knock-on preventing scrumhalf Olivia Ortiz from passing the ball. After a length delay for Kate Zackary to get her head wrapped up, the USA called for a scrum and ran an eightman pick to the line. Rachel Johnson was stopped just short, but the Eagles came up in force and Jarrell Searcy picked up and dove over to score. Hawkins converted and it was 14-0.

More positives for the USA even after they knocked on the restart. A series of punishing tackles shoved the Fijians back 30 meters. It all seemed trouble for Fiji. But a loose ball and a little break from lock Mereoni Nakesa saw the USA scramble. Bulou Mataitoga made a key tackle, but the USA weren’t back and organized enough. Some smart play from Fiji ad a final offload to flanker and captain Alfreda Fisher was enough. 

That made it 14-7, and after that the USA started to play a little too frantically, trying to score a on every movement and force too many offloads.

Regaining Momentum

The hydration break bought them some time to reassess and calm down, leading to two tries for the Americans.

After a Fijian movement ended with a pass into touch, the Eagles took a lineout 10 meters inside their own half. The ball was sent quickly out to the wing, and Erica Coulibaly torched multiple defenders to score from 60.It was a spectacular try and when Hawkins added the extras from a tough angle, the USA was back in control.

AUSA lineout in the middle of the field led to a maul that traveled about 15 meters; the ball was finally pulled out and sent wide. An outstanding catch-pass from Maher put Henrich on a carry and she eluded a couple of tacklers to take it down to the tryline. Jarrell Searcy picked up and after that Johnson did the same, and the No. 8 was over to make it 26-7.

Mistakes

The Eagles then spent a long period trying very hard to change their fortunes. Coulibaly tried to cover a long kick which she seemed to think was going to be a 50-22. What ended up happening was she tipped the ball back into the field of play, and the Fijians swooped in to gather, keep the movement going, and finally put Fisher over for a try close to halftime.

After avoiding a couple of close calls, the USA went into halftime, but started the second half with some dropped balls and Fiji was soon over with a nifty run from center Josifini Neihamu. The next 15 minutes or so were spent in the USA half.

Penalties (something they had targeted as a problem) and dropped balled gave Fiji scoring chance after scoring chance. The Eagles defense was impressive both in organization and in how physical they were, but when they got the ball back, they ended up just giving the ball back.

The Eagles did run a long goalline stand, with Kelter barking orders and moving players around, and that ended up with a held-up; yet another time Fiji got a penalty inside the USA 22, kicked to touch, and kicked it dead. The Eagles were hanging on by a thread.

Finally, right on the stroke of 60 minutes Fiji got another penalty in the red zone and this time Litiana Vueti slotted the goal.

USA 26 Fiji 24—20 minutes to go.

Impact Players Make an Impact

After the final water break the Eagles seemed to ramp it up. An influx of reserves also bolstered what was a pretty tired team, and while the front-rowers Paige Stathopoulos, Alivia Leatherman, Catie Benson eventually straightened out some scrum issues, the big impact players were Sariah Ibarra at fullback (moving Bulou Mataitoga to wing and replacing Coulibaly) and Cassidy Bargell at scrumhalf. Olivia Ortiz had enjoyed a very good game at scrumhalf, but Bargell found herself in position to make three huge plays.

The first of those was as Fiji were finally in their own half. Fijiana tried to work their way out and Bargell was extremely quick on the ball to force a holding-on penalty. From there the USA took the lineout and ran a maul down into Fiji’s 22. The forwards took over the crash it to the line. No try, but a penalty advantage, which Hawkins took by launching a high ball wide to the waiting arms of Henrich on the right wing. She simply had to catch and fall over to score, and that’s exactly what she did, completing a MA Sorensen-winner to MA Sorensen-winner connection.

That would prove to be the final scoring play at 31-24, but the game was not anywhere near over. 

Meanwhile, Ibarra was very active at fullback dealing with Fijian half-breaks and kicks.

Fiji grubbered through and once again put the USA under pressure. A series of penalties at scrum time solidified Fiji’s presence in the USA 22, but because they now needed a converted try, they kept opting for a scrum or a lineout. 

The USA defense, with Kelter barking orders and keeping players aligned, held firm and finally Maher and Bargell help Fijiana up in-goal.

A superb goalline dropout from Kristin Bitter pushed Fiji back, and the chase from the USA forced a mistake or two. Finally, Bargell forced another holding-on penalty. That led to a lineout, a superb carry through traffic from Kelter, and another excellent try-scoring chance. But Rachel Ehrecke was unable to control the ball as she burst into contact, and the chance was lost. Instead, Fiji kept up the attack, especially after Mataitonga gave up a bit of a needless penalty. Time, however, was not Fiji’s friend, and when Maher flew in to make a thundering tackle, that pretty much ended it.