Chris Wyles sparked a three-try, seven-minute outburst that disposed of game but limited Uruguay 43-9 Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium, handing Scott Johnson his first test win as coach of the USA.
Pinned down by defensive responsibilities in a sluggish first half, fullback Wyles tallied in the 52d minute, assisted by Gavin DeBartolo, who next short-circuited a promising Tero attack with an intercept down the left sideline. Then Takudzwa Ngwenya took a deft pass from busy Mike MacDonald to cap a multiphase score and round out the flurry with possibly the Eagles' best try of the season.
Mike Hercus converted all three to make the count 31-9, but the flyhalf's more important contributions were a 49-minute penalty goal that put the US in front 10-9 and the halftime adjustment of dropping back to limit Uruguayan tactical kicking opportunities. The opening 40 minutes had seen Tero flyhalf Matias Arocena and 20-year-old fullback Jeronimo Etcheverry pepper Ngwenya and company to gain ground in territorial exchanges, en route to a 9-7 lead behind Arocena's 3 of 5 goalkicking.
'It was a game of field position, and in the first half we kicked poorly and chased poorly,' Johnson said afterward. After halftime adjustments, the team 'clicked on.'
Flanker and captain Todd Clever opened the scoring in the 2d minute, a try that Johnson described as 'maybe too easy' in that the Eagles lost sight of their approach and started trying to do it all from first phase.
By contrast, the inexperienced Teros, with a trio of U20 players in the squad, stuck to scrummaging that disrupted the Eagle setpiece, counter-rucking to slow possession, and kicking. When the offensive plan was neutralized, the visitors came up with no alternative.
Rambunctious center Paul Emerick scored a second intercept in the 75th minute, and in injury time replacement halfback Chad Erskine darted round the base of the scrum for a fifth try.
The lopsided final should be enough to lift the 20th-ranked US above 19th-placed Uruguay when IRB standings are released Monday, and could even see the Eagles surpass 18th-ranked Russia. Any gains would be the USA's first since 2005: in the past 3 seasons, America has tumbled 7 places from 13th.
A pair of road wins over Japan would bolster prospects of recovering ground, valuable because the 2011 World Cup seedings will be premised in part on the test-match rankings. The 27-man tour squad will be finalized today or tomorrow, with all of the match 22 expected to make the cut. If so, the tourists would include five new caps -- lock Hayden Smith, center Junior Sifa, replacement hooker Joe Welch, replacement prop Shawn Pittman, and replacement flanker JJ Gagiano.
In the warmup match, flanker Kevin Sheehan's 26th-minute score helped USA 'A' to a 14-6 lead after 60 minutes, but a rapid-fire counterattack try and a drop goal from the New Zealand Heartland XV dropped the Robbie Shaw-led side to a 19-14 loss.
United States 43 Uruguay 9 (halftime: Uruguay 9-7)
Tries: Chris Wyles, Gavin DeBartolo, Takudzwa Ngwenya, Paul Emerick, Chad Erskine
Conversions: Mike Hercus (3), Malenese Malifa
Penalties: Mike Hercus
Chris Wyles; Takudzwa Ngwenya, Paul Emerick, Junior Sifa (Salesi Sika), Gavin DeBartolo; Mike Hercus, Mike Petri (Chad Erskine); Mike MacDonald, Mark Crick, Mate Makeiola (Shawn Pittman), Hayden Smith, John Van der Giessen (Alec Parker), Inaki Bausari (JJ Gagiano), Todd Clever (captain), Pat Quinn
Uruguay
Penalties: Matias Arocena (3)
Jeronimo Etcheverry; Francisco De Posadas (Leandro Leivas), Joaquin Pastore, Martin Llovet, Francisco Bulanti (Nicolas Morales); Matias Arocena, Juan Campomar (Manuel Martinez); Rodrigo Sanchez, Carlos Arboleya (Nicolas Klappembach), Mario Sagario (Juan Rombys) Enrico Laitano, Juan Miguel Alvarez (Matias Fonseca), Martin Espiga, Gonzalo Peyrou (Santiago Vilaseca), Ignacio Conti
Attendance: 5,060
Kurt,
On the ground in Salt Lake. Good for you for getting yourself there. This is the only report of the match available, all second hand stuff everywhere else.
How is it that USAR can't get this game on air?
Hey Nigel, $275k in salary can't get us a $2k web cast?
Word out of Boulder is we have lost Setanta. They're no longer are interested in doing business with USAR.
Posted by: web cast? | 10 November 2008 at 06:45
Whatever word you are hearing out of Boulder is bs. I'm not sure if you were trying to turn a phrase, or your sources are just awful, but that's just untrue.
USAR couldn't get the game broadcast because it was in prime time during college football season and ESPN had a fully blocked schedule. The games were taped and will be tape delayed on the USA Rugby Network today or tomorrow I believe.
Posted by: Reggie Lewis | 10 November 2008 at 09:20
Ignorance is no excuse.
An American led regime wouldn't have let this happen. Who the F is advising these blokes.
Reggie,
Stop the BS. There is no doubt in my mind that Boulder dropped the ball... again...
I just don't get it. I can't see the benefit of continuous poor planning or deliberately blacking out a test match.
These clowns are running at 33% efficiency and 33% over-budget.
Posted by: tired of excuses | 10 November 2008 at 14:42
You feel free to tell me your 'genius' plan to get ESPN to drop coverage of college football games instead of rugby. I'm dying to hear it.
American or Foreigner wouldn't have been able to swing that. Rugby is second fiddle to football when it comes to broadcast priority for the networks.
Nationality shouldn't have anything to do with this, and frankly, the continual harping of it is beyond absurd. BOO HOO our Eagles might not be 100% pure blood Americans. Who cares? They are eligible under IRB regulations. If they are better than American born and bred players, good on SJ and any other coach for maximizing the size and talent of his player pool. The last people so concerned with having so many pure bred athletes used to goose step and was a constant supporter of Movember. Yes, I'm referring to Hitler for all those that are too blinded by their own egos and arrogance to understand.
USARFU has struggled to get rugby consistently broadcast on a major network in the US. The games this past year, and certainly going forward will be mostly broadcast on ESPN - something noone should complain about, and frankly, something we should all take as a sign of how far we've come as a sport. I don't blame USARFU for not being able to get every game broadcast as they have to fight institutionalized sports like College Football for airtime. And as mentioned, from all I've heard, the game tapes are in post production now and will air on the USA Rugby Network this week.
The only ignorance here is your reflection in the mirror. The only excuses I see are those that complain of foreigner bias when they aren't chosen to be an Eagle instead of playing for their D3 side that still brings a keg to the side of the field.
Posted by: Reggie Lewis | 10 November 2008 at 16:07
Reg,
Your pal's in Boulder are hanging you to dry. Call and ask them the status of the broadcasting sponsorship they just lost. Good thing you're using a pseudonym, you can just change it and carry on like you're a know it all.
Posted by: For Real | 10 November 2008 at 16:35
Now son, calm down I can hear you slamming your head against the wall.
We both know that in this day and age we wouldn't have to wait for Paul Revere to let us know that the Uruguayans were coming. We wouldn't have to for the pony express to tell us that we finally won a war.
The sad fact is that your friends are not very good influences on you. They will continue to drag you down. It is 2008 and its time.
Its time for you to make a decision. Either get out of my basement or move in with your buddies in Boulder. I just can't harbor a USArFu apologist any longer. Your Great Grandpappy, Reginald Denny Lewis, rest his soul, would be very disapointed.
Love,
Mom
Posted by: Regie's mom | 10 November 2008 at 18:43
Sorry - I'm a little confused. USA Rugby lost their broadcast contract? Was that buried in one of the thousand emails they send me each week?
Seriously, was that announced?
Posted by: Greg Davies | 10 November 2008 at 21:40
USA Rugby losing their contract with Setanta doesn't exactly mean much; if games are on ESPN in the future then that works out fine. Plus Setanta is seriously in debt from its acquisition of Premier League rights and its investors screwed the pooch in trying to sell out - now investors like Goldman Sachs need the money and prices have dropped. Guess who's in pole position to buy Setanta?
You guessed it - Ba-nah-nah, Ba-nah-nah...
Posted by: Flynn Hagerty | 11 November 2008 at 00:36
But Setanta isn't ESPN and most of the Eagles games have been on ESPNU or Classic lately. Did they lose the ESPN deal? Who does their webcasting?
Posted by: Greg Davies | 11 November 2008 at 08:09
Flynnie,
Sorry I don't get it. Can you explain.
BTW, I disagree that USA Rugby losing Setanta isn't big. Setanta was a sponsor who paid money, brought a team to the US and most importantly provided the US with lots of on-air promos as part of the agreement.
The word is they weren't happy with USA Rugby's broadcast production, or event management skills.
Posted by: sponsorship loss | 11 November 2008 at 08:21
The number one influence in the DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN RUGBY is a 2 hour long advert called a rugby match - on television.
The 2nd is the web site and communication with members/potential members.
The 3rd is youth development policy.
The 4th is upgrading domestic rugby (top leagues) into something that could be podcasted or downloaded from the website on Sunday.
The 5th is branding the Eagles as American as apple pie.
The 6th is winning games.
The 7th on down ranges from 5x 3min. clips of SJ coaching kids skills - post on youtube to changing the toilet paper in Boulder.
These things could be sorted out in 6 months time, with the right navigator - we don't have that guy. Call me - I'll do it for free.... I don't think the membership would mind if I used half of the dues money to do it. The rest of the board can take their 1million salary and spend more millions to try and create some 2nd rate pro team that won't make any money. I'll improve domestic rugby in 6 months time.
Posted by: American guy not coaching until these morons leave the country | 11 November 2008 at 09:31
"American guy not coaching until these morons leave the country"
That's mature and benefits no one.
Posted by: Pete Murray | 13 November 2008 at 09:38