USA Women's Eagles Soar Up World Rugby Rankings

Late penalty secures series win over Japan, propelling team to seventh in world standings

Following the narrow win against Japan, the Eagles have reclaimed the positions they lost after the previous draw /

By Priscilla Jepchumba

In the Eagles' first playoff against Japan in Kitakyushu, the match ended with a 17-17 draw.

However, in the rematch in Shizuoka, USA edged past Japan with a narrow 11-8 victory, securing a 1-0 series win at the Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa, thanks to a late penalty from McKenzie Hawkins.

Kathryn Treder, the vice-captain and hooker for the Women's Eagles, scored an early try just seven minutes into the game, putting the tourists on the scoreboard.

Despite this, Japan gained the lead at half-time with a try from Seino Saito and a penalty from Ayasa Otsuka.

Hawkins leveled the score to 8-8 six minutes into the second half with a successful kick, and just moments before the end, she maintained her composure and secured the win by sending the ball through the poles.

This victory has propelled USA two places up to seventh in the World Rugby Women's Rankings, reclaiming the positions they lost after the previous draw. As a result, Wales and Italy have each dropped one place. Meanwhile, Japan remains in 11th place.

“Thank you everyone for coming. It was a massive contest that went for 80 minutes. Clearly both teams could’ve won in the end and we respect the talents of the Sakura 15. We would’ve liked to have been smarter with our rugby and played in the right areas of the field more often. Clearly we had a lot of character in defense to keep turning up and to get that last turnover,” Eagles coach Sione Fukofuka said after their win.

Eagles captain Tess Feury was elated after the win. “Thank you to the fans for being here. This is an amazing crowd and stadium. It’s been a really big two weeks of games,” said Feury.

“We went back this week to the drawing board and it was messy at times but our work rate pulled through at the end and we were able to stay calm and get that win on the board,” she said, “It wasn’t as pretty as we wanted it to be but I think we really pulled through.”

The USA had dropped two spots to ninth after a tense 17-17 draw with Japan in Kitakyushu in their last faceoff against Japan.

Meanwhile, the USA will make their top-level debut next month and are scheduled to play England, France, and Ireland in Canada.