June 2 2005, Hartford, Conn. – The Eagles dropped a few feathers in what was ultimately a dominating and brilliant Wales performance and a flat, uninspiring day for the USA.
Wales won 77-3, scoring 11 tries and with center Ceri Sweeney being perfect on all his conversions, many difficult attempts. The USA got one penalty kick from Mike Hercus, and although they looked like scoring a few times, they never looked like even coming close to winning.
The day began early as Wales showed more power in the rucks, and an ability to spin it wide quickly. The USA made plenty of tackles, but often their tackles were made with the Welsh going forward, dragging the American with them. It made for go-forward rugby for the Welsh, and trouble for the Americans.
Sweeney opened the scoring with a try, which he converted, and a try from Kevin Morgan followed. Hercus hit a penalty but right off the restart Nicky Robinson split the scattered American defense.
"When we played to our pattern and stuck to that we did better, but when we came away from that we got into trouble," said captain Kort Schubert.
The USA pressured down 21-3, and had several opportunities to score a try. Twice they had lineouts five meters out thanks to penalties, but couldn't score. The USA backs tried to play a hard-running, flat massing game, but they did not break through.
Ultimately the USA got a penalty in front of the posts, which Hercus missed.
Wales kept it up, getting tries from Jonathan Thomas and Rhys Williams to make it 42-3 at the half.
"I think the rugby fans wanted to come and at least see their national team play hard," said USA head coach Tom Billups. "We didn't play hard."
It also didn't hurt that Wales had a superb game plan executed brilliantly. They ran several decoy runners who another referee might have pinged for obstruction. Certainly the Americans were running into them. But no penalties were forthcoming.
"They are a fully professional team," said USA center Paul Emerick. "They played very well and they run well and pass well. That's hard to defend whether you're a Tier II nations or a Tier I nation."
The Eagles made a couple of very promising breaks. Mike Hercus slipped through a huge gap to go 50 meters, and he found Emerick. But the attack faltered off weak rucking and scrumhalf Doug Rowe knocked on. Some nice passing put David Fee on a break wide, but he was ushered into touch.
The Eagles kept up the pressure and had a penalty right under the posts. They opted for a scrum, which had been having problems all day, and the eightman pickup failed.
"We had some opportunities where we took lineouts or scrums instead of going for points, and that didn't work," said Billups. "But I was pleased that the guys made the effort."
"I was thinking we would have eight of their forwards in a small area, and that would give me some space to go in," said Schubert.
Meanwhile, dropped balls, missed lineouts, and other mistakes were almost always punished with tries.
The Eagles ended the last few minutes right on the Welsh line, almost getting over a couple of times. The game ended with Emerick taking a tap penalty and getting to the line, but it bounced off his knee. Game over.
"We look at the game at a certain level about creating penetration and being able to deny it," said Billups. "We were able to create some penetration against a very good team but we weren't able to deny any. "
"It's pretty hard to lose 77-3," said Emerick. "We will pick our heads up, though, and get ready for the Churchill Cup."
The Americans basically played under their own level. They were flat, nervous, dropped balls, and were certainly not hard enough or powerful enough in the rucks. The Welsh, for their part, played brilliantly, and we shouldn't take anything away from that.
"On balance I think we might have improved marginally in a few areas," said Billups. "They were bigger, faster, smarter, and more skilled. It was what we would expect from a Six Nations Champion."
Overall, it was a schooling for the Americans.
