Wales ended their brief North American tour, as expected on Saturday, with a very comfortable victory over the USA Eagles, 15 – 48. The game was a clinical illustration of the differences between cold, calculating professionalism, and the keen, enthusiastic commitment of the amateur game. Mind you, it didn’t all go Wales’ way, as in the first minute – with their first touch of the ball – Ryan Jones carried the ball straight at the advancing USA defence and was absolutely clattered, never really recovering from the clash, being taken off after 19 minutes. With his exit he probably saw any hopes of joining the Lions in South Africa disappear too.
The first 10 minutes saw USA, as expected, being extremely competitive up front, but their indiscipline also lead to a couple of penalties, slotted by Nicky Robinson before a rare excursion into Welsh territory led to a USA penalty, bringing it back to 3 – 6.
On 14 minutes, Wales scored the first of their 6 tries, Mark Jones finishing off a slick move from Daniel Evans pass. Wales started finding some gaps at this point, Nicky Robinson producing a beautiful chip over the defence, feeding John Davies who ran in from halfway for the second try.
Wales then really exerted pressure on the beleaguered Eagles pack, who gave away a string of penalties, finally leading to a penalty try after illegally preventing Dafydd Jones score a certain pushover try. Nicky Robinson’s conversion was his fifth successful kick out of five, half time soon following with Wales very comfortable at 27 – 3 ahead.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw the USA’s best period, with them camped on Wales’ line, before spraying the ball out wide for an excellent run by the massive 17 stone centre Tuilevuka. Exploding through three tackles for a try earned USA a much deserved score. But that was as good as it got for the Eagles, as Wales sensing a resurgence, simply upped their game and hardly allowed USA back in their half for the next 20 minutes. Two more tries – for Tom James and Gareth Cooper from kicks ahead, put Wales out of sight at 41 – 10, before John Davies, set up by Bishop’s quick hands and Biggar’s final pass, took Wales to within sight of a half century of points.
The final word however deservedly went to the hosts, a just reward for their endeavours as Gagiani went over in the final seconds, following concerted pressure on the Welsh line.
Coach Robin McBride will be delighted that Wales end the season on a high, with this comfortable victory, which encouragingly showed Wales have some depth in their squad, notably with the performances of youngsters Sam Warburton, Tom James and the excellent centre pairing of Bishop and Davies.
Words: Dave Brayley
