USA to Face Samoa In Pacific Nations Cup Bronze Medal Match
By Priscilla Jepchumba
The 2024 Asahi Pacific Nations Cup quarterfinal ended with the USA Men’s Eagles losing 22-3 to Fiji. Consequently, the USA will now focus its efforts on the bronze medal play on Saturday. The two teams were evenly matched throughout most of the game, but Fiji's strength prevailed, leading them to victory.
The Cup's final match, between Japan and Fiji, the five-time Pacific Nations Cup champions, will take place on Saturday, September 21st. Japan secured their spot in the final by defeating Samoa 49-27. The USA team has shown significant improvement in defense and physical strength, especially in the match against Fiji. As they get ready for the bronze medal match, the USA team will persist in practicing.
The semifinal between the USA and Fiji began with Fiji kicking off. An error from a USA player caused the ball to go out of play, giving Fiji a lineout advantage. This led to a series of kicks, and the debutant Toby Fricker neatly gathered the ball and passed it to Nate Augspurger on the wing, who made a kick for grounds.
The Eagles gained an advantage after Fiji received a yellow card for dangerous play, leading to a 10-minute power play. Despite some good attacking moves, a forward pass halted their progress. Another strong run by Augspurger took the USA closer to the try zone for a five-meter scrum, but a mistake on the side disrupted their advance.
Fiji effectively denied the USA any breakthroughs and defended well, leading the Eagles to finish the match with a score of 3-22. The USA head coach, Scott Lawrence, stated that their team did the best they could to sustain pressure from an attacking Fiji.
“You feel like you have a little momentum in the game, and it just stops. I am pleased of our offside discipline. Fiji is an exciting attacking team and I thought defensively we did well to sustain pressure and apply pressure ourselves,” said Lawrence.
“The big thing was working on getting bodies in the front. That was important for us, to get our SOS right, our speed of set right, and then get bodies in front consistently.”
Nate Augspurger, the USA team captain said he was proud of his team.
“We wanted to meet their physicality; I think that was a big part of our game. It was one of our pillars going into the game, so it did feel like at times we were able to put the shots in, force knock ons, put them on their backs, just that second half got away from us.
We put a big emphasis on our bench and being energized. They come in and have to raise the tempo of the game. I’m super proud of these guys. We have a couple young bucks who get to be their authentic selves when they come into a team like this so that’s really important for us. We just have to keep working hard.”
JUDY ROTICH