The US Eagles’ dominance over Canada continued in Colorado on Saturday night with a 47-19 victory over their North American neighbours in the opening round of the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup 2019.
USA kicked off their Pacific Nations Cup campaign with a commanding 47-19 defeat of neighbours Canada in front of a sold-out crowd at Infinity Park in Glendale, Colorado.
Canada have not beaten their neighbours since August 2013, and rarely looked like improving on that recent record as the hosts raced into a two-try lead. Hooker Dylan Fawsitt dotted down at the back of a rolling maul and captain Blaine Scully followed him over the try line with an acrobatic effort. Fly-half AJ MacGinty converted both and added two first-half penalties to give the USA a 20-0 advantage at the break.
Canada hit back at the start of the second period, captain Tyler Ardron touching down for a try converted by debutant fly-half Peter Nelson but that was as close as the Canucks would get as the Eagles extended their unbeaten run in the fixture to 11 matches.
MacGinty added a third penalty before three unanswered tries – from Ben Landry, Gannon Moore and Kapeli Pifeleti Jr. – effectively put the game to bed.
However, the Eagles would finish the match with 14 men as replacement hooker Pifeleti Jr. received a yellow card with just over seven minutes remaining, shortly after second-row Nick Civetta had to leave the field with a leg injury.
Canada made use of their numerical advantage, a penalty try and a Conor Trainor touch down coming either side of a Ruben de Haas try to give the score a more respectable look.
“We wanted to be one of the more physical teams in this tournament, and lead that into the World Cup. I think we brought that today,” USA second-row Landry said.
