The team happily chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A” as they celebrated their qualification for the Rugby World Cup.
The United States Eagles national team celebrated after their 52-16 victory over Canada. Over 5,000 fans were cheering them on to victory at the Toreto Stadium.
The Eagles secured the ‘America 1’ spot for the event in 2019 in the Asian country. This is actually the first time the team would be picking the top qualifying spot as Canada are the usual side. Both sides knew what was at stake ahead of the duel so there was change of the guard on Saturday.
For the Eagles aside the joy of qualifying, there is the need to show progress as they have never moved from pool play. In 2015, they lost 0-4, with South Africa defeating them 64-0. Four years back, the Aussies had humiliated them 67-5.
The tournament in Japan would not get any easier as they would be slugging it out against England, France and Argentina ranked second, eighth and ninth in the world rankings. Their best bet would be against an opponent from Oceania Fiji.
The American team are low ranking so the morale is not so much. They would require a lot of grit as only two would move on from the group. The team also needs to work on several other things. In Ontario, they were leading 28-18 but their opponents closed that gap to 28-28. In the return leg, they were ahead 19-6 but allowed their rivals bring it to 19-16 in the second half. The vice-captain Nate Augspurger admitted that the game was going the direction of the first leg so the team had to play the best of strong will to get the end result.