Eagles edge Los Leones

MATCH REPORT: The United States has gone undefeated in the year-end internationals.

They won another close game against European opposition, beating Spain 26-23 at the weekend at Estadio Nacional Complutense in Madrid.

It follows the 21-17 win over Portugal two weeks ago and last week’s 36-17 triumph over Tonga.

It was a game not of two halves, but of four quarters.

The United States was largely on top in the middle period – with bursts from Spain at the start and end of the game.

It didn’t seem it would be that way when United States captain Greg Peterson found himself in the bin after seven minutes with a dangerous tackle.

Spain made the United States pay almost immediately by forcing their way off a kick tap over the line, with Alex Saleta going over.

Cisneros’ Gozalo Vinuesa kicked the conversion and a penalty to put Spain up 10-0 before the team was back to 15-a-side.

Once the United States were back to full strength their strength and greater experience told emphatically.

After back-to-back penalties, the United States were over with a quick-flowing move off the maul on the blindside running through the No.9 and No.10, with the United States’s No.11 Nate Augspurger diving into the corner.

Ten minutes later the United States, having consistently made easy meters punching holes through the middle found themselves crossing over Tavite Lopeti.

It was 14-10 to the United States and Spain couldn’t get out of their half.

The second half brought no respite with the United States scoring through Mark O’Keeffe, after the United States had forced Spain to become an incredibly narrow defence to make it 19-10.

Spain made it 13-19 and the second yellow for the United States, with Old Glory DC’s Cory Daniel this time in the bin, looked like giving Spain a way back in.

However, the relentless United States pressure continued and even down a man they would be dominating in the scrum, maul and their brute force had them over through Lopeti.

The United States held a 26-13 lead and it looked like getting very ugly for Spain.

Instead, maybe through the effect of playing 20 minutes with 14 men or a bit of complacency, it was Spain who would romp to the finish line with a wonderful move going ‘coast to coast’ to make it 26-18 and then in the 69th minute Spain earned a pen five metre out and a quick release from the scrum, negating the United States’s advantage, had Martiniano Cian bouncing over.

The herculean comeback would end there though and instead of going away crestfallen, Spain could walk away proud of clawing their way back into the game whilst the United States can feel pleased for stabilising in the final ten to hold on 23-26.

After the game, United States coach Scott Lawerence was pleased with the result.

“Our performance focus for the entire year was to build a depth chart for 2025,” Lawerence said.

“We were happy to always get the wins, but to also measure players so we’re in a good spot next year.”

Looking at the United States squad list, most of their team are playing in America and United States Captain Greg Peterson also stressed the importance of the growing strength of the Major League Rugby.

“Boys playing together in small units creates those connections,” Peterson said.

“The MLR competition is growing, the standard is growing which gives the boys 16 rounds of high quality competition, which, when I started with the US, wasn’t there.”

The scorers

For Spain:
Tries: Saleta, Nieto, Nieto
Con: Vinuesa,
Pens: Vinuesa 2

For the United States
Tries: Augspurger, Lopeti, O’Keeffe, Lopeti
Cons: MacGinty 3

Yellow cards: Greg Peterson (United States, 6 – foul play, dangerous tackle), Cory Daniel (United States, 48 – foul play)

The teams:

Spain: 15 Alberto Carmona, 14 Gauthier Minguillón, 13 Álex Alonso, 12 Alvar Gimeno, 11 Martiniano Cian, 10 Gonzalo Vinuesa, 9 Estanislao Bay, 8 Raphael Nieto, 7 Álex Saleta, 6 Ignacio Piñeiro, 5 Asier Usárraga, 4 Brice Ferrer, 3 Lucas Santamaría, 2 Santiago Ovejero, 1 Bernardo Vázquez.
Replacements: 16 Vicente Del Hoyo, 17 Thierry Futeu, 18 Hugo Pirlet, 19 Matheo Triki, 20 Ekain Imaz, 21 Kerman Aurrekoetxea, 22 Gonzalo López Bontempo, 23 Pau Aira.

United States: 15 Erich Storti, 14 Mark O’keeffe, 13 Dominic Besag, 12 Tavite Lopeti, 11 Nate Augspurger, 10 Aj Macginty, 9 Ruben de Haas, 8 Paddy Ryan, 7 Cory Daniel, 6 Viliami Helu, 5 Greg Peterson (captain), 4 Jason Damm, 3 Paul Mullen, 2 Kapeli Pifeleti, 1 Jake Turnbull.
Replacements: 16 Sean Mcnulty, 17 Jack Iscaro, 18 Pono Davis, 19 Tomas Casares, 20 Tesimoni Tonga’uoha, 21 Ethan Mcveigh, 22 Noah Brown, 23 Luke Carty.

Referee: Saba Abulashvilli
Assistant referees: Evan Urruzmendi, Kevin Bralley
TMO: Tom Spurrier

By Edward Anderson