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pacific-nations-cup
USA coach Scott Lawrence highlighted the “character” and “care” the Eagles showed during their 63-14 Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup semi-final defeat, and the younger players gained experience in scoring against Japan.
Japan they bought their ticket to next weekend’s Pacific Nations Cup final in Tokyo with a clinical performance, starting their scoring blitz in the first minute. The Brave Blossoms ran in four tries inside 16 minutes as they raced to a 28-0 lead.
It was one-way traffic during the first quarter at Osaka’s Hanazono Rugby Stadium, but the USA fought their way back into the contest before the break. Shilo Klein and Tavite Lopeti each crossed for a try as the Eagles halved their former deficit of 28 points.
But there were a few key moments later that seemed to have a big say in the match, with Soujirou Ootsuka scoring on the last play of the first half. Japan also scored a minute into the second period, before the USA lost their captain to a yellow card.
Eagles captain Jason Damm was sent to the sin bin and the Brave Blossoms made the most of their one-man advantage. Jack Cornelsen and Esei Ha’angana got on the scoresheet before the visitors reverted to their full 15-man contingent.
“Give them credit for the character staying in it. The initial speed of the game put them off a little bit, so they adjusted to that,” Lawrence said.
“There’s a little bit of guts and a little bit of adapting to the game. They did it well.
“We thought going into the second half, we expected another quick start in the top 20, the third quarter, and ended up with a yellow card and that was probably the difference in that block. We thought we could fight for a long time in the game.”
Sam Greene pounced for Japan’s ninth try of the match and the full-back added the extras to take his individual tally to 23. Japan again came close to scoring but in the end there was no change on the scoreboard in the final 15 minutes.
The Eagles finished the match with nearly 70 percent possession in the final 10 minutes, but conceded more penalties than the Brave Blossoms and missed 23 tackles from more than 180 attempts on the night.
Five of Japan’s players ranked in the top six in total carries, with Greene and winger Inoka Buru leading the way with at least 88 rushing yards each. Kanji Shimokawa also finished with a team-high 16 tackles, with Harry Hawkings next best for Japan with 14.
“(Japan) were just clinical tonight, I thought. I think we were well beaten in most parts of the game,” Lawrence told reporters.
“We’ll take lessons from this. We’ve exposed a few players to international touring and rugby and that’s an important part of the experience. We’ll take that and learn from it and move forward into next week. We’ve got our friends up north here in a few weeks.”
