International Rugby News
The Japanese national team has come in for plenty of much-deserved praise for their decision to go for the win against South Africa in their opening game of the Rugby World Cup.
Of World Cup glory little things are made. The USA Men’s National Team had it all together to beat Samoa, and didn’t do so. Why? Let’s look:
Samoa had a good game plan, which combined physical play and working the pick-and-names, and then exploiting the USA defensive push with grubber kicks. The kicks worked very well, leading to 13 points, including two tries.
Many USA fans were unable to see the Eagles play Samoa Sunday because the Universal Sports platform wasn't working correctly.
According to a source at Universal Sports, there was an outage at Amazon which affecting Universal's streaming partners.
BRIGHTON, UK - The USA’s bid to win two or three pool games at the Rugby World Cup was dealt a massive blow Sunday as the Eagles were defeated by Samoa 25-16 in Brighton.
Man of the match Tim Nanai-Williams was brilliant as an attacking forced from fullback, while the Eagles kept getting into penalty trouble, giving up 11 penalties while Samoa was penalized just four times.
USA Head Coach Mike Tolkin has named his squad for the team's Rugby World Cup opener against Samoa.
Here's a look at the USA team (below) and also the matchiup between the two teams. Additional reporting from Chris Tipping and by Boudewijn de Jongh.