The USA Eagles did what they had to do over the weekend: They beat Uruguay 27-6
http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3818_5711055,00.html
in the return leg in Florida. The match was closer than the score would indicate, but USA flanker and captain Todd Clever led by example by scoring two tries. The last one, was a thing of beauty(The bold part is quoted from Usarugby.com) :
When an injury sent Swiryn out of the match, with about five minutes left to play, Clever stepped into the backline and made the most of his shift, to clinch a Rugby World Cup berth for the USA, off a true team try.
Off a wheeled scrum, veteran lock Alec Parker flicked to Mike Petri and the ball cycled through the hands of J.J. Gagiano and Nese Malifa, who pitched out wide to Clever. Off the bounce, the skilled team leader charged in to bounce down in the try zone before the whistle.
For the Eagles, and their Irish head coach, Eddie O’Sullivan, this win will put them into the same group as Australia, Ireland, Italy and the European #2 qualifier. (Maybe the Czech Republic or Portugal?)
Every World Cup seems to have a “Group of Death”, but maybe with the USA joining the Aussies, Irish and Italians, maybe they will call this “The Group of Alcohol Breath.” Even if the USA gets smoked against the Wallabies, Ireland and Nick Mallet’s Azzurri, at least the post match socials and parties should be pretty good.
By beating Uruguay, this also saved the US of a do or die playoff against another European side. Now it will be Uruguay that will have to sweat out a final playoff chance to see if they can make it to New Zealand in 2011.
In the US, the qualification for RWC 2011 is a great thing for developing the sport. Now that the USA has qualified, they have to see if they can do better than France 2007, where they were in a tough group with World Champs South Africa, Runners-up England, Tonga and Samoa. The US played both Tonga and Samoa tough, but left France without a win to their name. Now that Eddie O’Sullivan
has the USA back in the RWC, it will be interesting to see if the Yanks can improve on their results in New Zealand.
One thing for sure-I have to start saving money big-time to try to make it to Kiwi-land for the quadrennial rugby orgy that IS The Rugby World Cup.
In other international news, I also saw that Japan beat Canada twice in the past two weeks. Like I have said before, the Japanese are really an improving side. Once upon a time, Canada was good enough to make it to the Quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup (back in 1991) and Japan was the team other teams wanted to play to see if they can put up a 100 points. Those days are a memory as Japan keeps climbing the IRB ladder of team rankings.
Later this week, It we’ll know if Namibia
http://www.namibianrugby.com/
can join the Eagles in stamping their ticket for RWC 2011, when they host Tunisia later this week holding a 5 point lead from their win in Tunis a couple of weeks ago. I admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for Namibia-it only became an independent country in 1990, and back in the 2007 RWC, played with a great deal of heart. I saw them hold out for a long time against the Pumas in Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome. They kept the score close until Argentina’s conditioning and professionalism just became too much for the gutty team from South west Africa.I hope that they can make it back to the Rugby World Cup with a win later this week.
When an injury sent Swiryn out of the match, with about five minutes left to play, Clever stepped into the backline and made the most of his shift, to clinch a Rugby World Cup berth for the USA, off a true team try.
The best place for freelance projects is freelancing sites. Freelancing sites are the best option for part time home based business and freelance jobs. There are many types of work available at freelancing sitesMAKE MONEY PART TIME CANNADA
The best place for freelance projects is freelancing sites. Freelancing sites are the best option for part time home based business and freelance jobs. There are many types of work available at freelancing sites
The Center for Media Research has released a study by Vertical Response that shows just where many of these ‘Main Street’ players are going with their online dollars. The big winners: e-mail and social media. With only 3.8% of small business folks NOT planning on using e-mail marketing and with social media carrying the perception of being free (which they so rudely discover it is far from free) this should make some in the banner and search crowd a little wary.
http://www.onlineuniversalwork.com
It’s so lucky for me to find your blog! So shocking and great!