Scotland 'A' blank the Eagles
The United States Eagles fell at the hands of Scotland ‘A’ in the third match of their November at Galashiels.
Scotland ‘A’ put 25 points on the board, without reply from the visiting Americans, at the Netherdale Stadium.
The Eagles will look to gain experience from the Scotland loss and focus on their IRB ranking Test against Georgia next Saturday.
The first half had the Eagles down by 11 points, as Scotland ‘A’ kicked two penalties and scored a try during a period when they had a one-man advantage.
The scrums were a problem area for the Eagles throughout the match, with Scotland ‘A’ pressuring the American forwards, eventually resulting in a yellow card to Mate Moeakiola for a repeated scrum infringements.
“We started well, but turned over a lot of ball and we got behind 0-6 early,” Eagles coach Eddie O’Sullivan said.
“Our scrum was under a lot of pressure and they scored a try when we were a man down.
“We still had a shot at 0-11,” O’Sullivan added.
Two overlapping yellow cards in the second half were the back-breaker for the US.
Inaki Basauri was pinged in the 56th minute for not releasing the tackled player and six minutes later Paul Emerick was sent off for a high tackle.
With only 13 men on the field, the Eagles couldn’t hold off the Scottish attack.
Two tries were scored when Scotland ‘A’ had the two-man advantage.
All of the Scotland ‘A’ tries came when Eagles players were in the sin bin, which speaks volumes of the American defence – which was strong enough wen they had a full compliment.
Even with fire power on the bench, O’Sullivan only made one sub. It came in the 71st minute when Scott Lavalla came on for Samu Manoa in the second row, an indication that O’Sullivan stuck to his guns on giving players experience on the November tour.
O’Sullivan knows that the Eagle attack is potent.
Even though they lost to Scottish second string outfit, when the Eagles had ball they were “in good shape”.
Some key players are resting in preparation for Georgia, where they will be taking on a spirited Georgian side in a notoriously lively match atmosphere. It will be a good challenge for the Eagles, to be sure.
The Eagles will finish their tour with the IRB ranking test against Georgia at the National Stadium in Tbilisi next Saturday, on November 27.
The scorers:
Scotland A:
Tries: Jones 2, Traynor
Cons: Blair 2
Pens: Blair 2
United States Eagles:
None
Yellow cards: Mate Moeakiola (US Eagles, 16 – repeated scrum infringements), Inaki Basauri (US Eagles, 56 – not releasing the tackled player), Paul Emerick (US Eagles, 62 – high tackle)
Teams:
Scotland A: 15 Jack Cuthbert, 14 Jim Thompson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Alex Grove, 11 Lee Jones, 10 David Blair, 9 Mark McMillan, 8 Stuart McInally, 7 Roddy Grant, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Al Kellock, 4 Fraser McKenzie, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements: 16 Steven Lawrie, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Tom Ryder, 19 David Denton, 20 Henry Pyrgos, 21 Duncan Weir, 22 John Houston.
United States Eagles: 15 Colin Hawley, 14 Alipate Tuilevuka, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Andrew Suniula, 11 Zachary Test, 10 Taivalu Enosa, 9 Mike Petri, 8 Jonathon Gagiano, 7 Inaki Basauri, 6 Patrick Danahy, 5 Hayden Smith, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Eric Fry, 2 Chris Biller, 1 Mate Moeakiola.
Replacements: 16 Phil Thiel, 17 Shawn Pittman, 18 Scott Lavalla, 19 Louis Stanfill, 20 Tim Usasz, 21 Nese Malifa, 22 Chris Wyles.
