Scotland defeated the USA 42-7 Friday night at Audi Field in Washington DC.
The game was played in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 17,418, and they saw a Scottish side that punished USA mistakes, didn’t miss their kicks at goal, and got a little bit of the rub of the green from the guy with the whistle.
Scotland got on the board about nine minutes in, making a scoring chance out of a USA turnover. And turnovers were a problem for the USA. They continued to lose control of the ball inside Scotland’s 22 and inside their own.
They had some prime scoring chances in the first half but little mistakes at the lineout, or in their driving maul meant no tries.
Scotland, meanwhile, continued to get key penalties and used those to launch for four tries in the first half. The Eagles, for their part, got two penalty goal attempts, one a relatively short one for AJ MacGinty, and one a long-range effort from fullback Luke Carty. Both missed.
Finally the Eagles scored after a scrum near the Scotland tryline. Scotland tried to run an eightman pick but a tackle from scrumhalf JP Smith jarred the ball loose. After MacGinty them almost got to the line, a nice, flat pass from JP Smith put Tommaso Boni over for the try and MacGinty converted.
But Scotland got the last laugh in the first half with a penalty, maul, and a try, even though it really seemed like Scotland’s maul had disintegrated and they were guilty of obstruction. Referee Jordan Way of Australia was having none of it and the try stood.
In the second half, the USA defended better and ran better continuity on attack. But they struggled to break the Scottish line and also found themselves on the wrong side of some 50-50 calls. Scotland might well have sealed on ballcarriers, but were not called. A couple of good USA jackles were not given. And in the first half an attacking lineout was sacked (which you can do with one player but not more), by three players. If that was OK and you now had a ruck, Scotland was certainly guilty of killing the ball in that ruck … no call.
The game ended with the USA being held up after Scotland was again guilty of killed the ball. It was that kind of night.
Overall, then, the USA had their moments. But, like last week’s loss to Romania, they lost the ball in contact far, far too many times.
Source link : https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/tough-loss-usa-vs-scotland
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Publish date : 2024-07-12 23:32:24
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