Eagles take Cold War match
The USA Eagles defeated Russia 28-7 Saturday at Allianz Park to make it consecutive wins following last weekend’s 25-24 victory against Georgia.
The Eagles finished their tour with a flourish, as Premiership stars Chris Wyles and Samu Manoa each scored in the first half.
Wyles, playing at his club’s home stadium in London, opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Adam Siddall, who kicked the match-winning penalty last weekend, converted Wyles’ try.
Less than 10 minutes later, Manoa showed off some of the skills Northampton Saints fans have come to adore with the Eagles’ second try. Siddall missed the conversion, but the Eagles had an imposing 12-0 lead.
For the third consecutive match, the Eagles went into half-time with a lead. The New Zealand Maori All Blacks were down 9-7 in Philadelphia and Georgia trailed the Eagles 15-13 last weekend.
Siddall extended the lead on the other side of half time with a penalty in the 41st minute. Andrey Garbuzov got Russia back in the match with a converted try, but two more penalties from Siddall put an end to any comeback.
Cameron Dolan, who started at the No.8 position in each of the three November tour matches, concluded the afternoon’s scoring with a try in the final minute, his second in three matches.
Georgia, ranked ahead of the Eagles at 17th this weekend, defeated 15th-ranked Canada earlier this month and eighth-ranked Samoa Saturday, giving credibility to the Eagles’ win.
Titi Lamositele earned his first starting cap Saturday at his potential future club, as Saracens have taken interest in the young prop. Lamositele could join Wyles in London as soon as next year.
The Eagles are now done for the year and will hope to take the momentum gained with two consecutive wins into the World Cup Qualifier series against Uruguay next March.
The scorers:
For USA:
Tries: Wyles, Manoa, Dolan
Cons: Siddal 2
Pens: Siddal 3
For Russia:
Try: Garbuzov
Con: Gaysin
USA: 15 Chris Wyles, 14 Blaine Scully, 13 Folau Niua, 12 Andrew Suniula, 11 Tim Maupin, 10 Adam Siddal, 9 Robbie Shaw, 8 Cameron Dolan, 7 Scott LaValla, 6 Todd Clever (captain), 5 Samu Manoa, 4 Tai Tuisamoa, 3 Titi Lamositele, 2 Phil Thiel, 1 Nick Wallace.
Replacements: 16 Zach Fonoglio, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 Eric Fry, 19 Graham Harriman, 20 Derek Asburn, 21 Shaun Davies, 22 Seamus Kelly, 23 Luke Hume.
Russia: 15 Ramil Gaysin, 14 Vasily Artemyev, 13 Igor Galinovskiy, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Sergey Sugrobov, 9 Anton Ryabov, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Pavel Butenko, 6 Alexander Khudyakov, 5 Andrey Garbuzov, 4 Alexander Voytov (captain), 3 Evgeny Pronenko, 2 Valery Tsnobiladze, 1 Grigory Tsnobiladze.
Replacements: 16 Vladislav Korshunov, 17 Aleksey Volkov, 18 Innokentiy Zykov, 19 Denis Antonov, 20 Artem Fatakhov, 21 Yury Kushnarev, 22 Andrey Otrokov, 23 Denis Simplikevich.
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)
