Eagles run riot against Romania

Attacking with high tempo from the kick off, the Eagles ran in six tries in Bucharest to claim their fifth consecutive win of the tournament. 

Proud of the teams performance, Head Coach Scott Lawrence commented;  “The Pershing Cup stays with the Eagles. We’re proud of the performance, proud of the group, and proud to represent the United States.

Captain, Jason Damm added; “It came down to us working really hard within our game model. We saw the results of that and, when it’s going well, it looks amazing.”

Fly-half Chris Hilsenbeck opened the lead in the second minute with a penalty goal putting the USA up by three.  Soon after he found space behind the Romanian defensive line to land a kick chased down by Noah Brown to touch over for the game's opening try.

Minutes later, scrum-half Oscar Lennon ran through Romanian defense passing off to Rufus McLean to dive across the line,  Romania contested with a try of their own but the Eagles immediately answered with Hilsenbeck putting Perry Mayo into space to dot down. 

Romania countered with a mauling try before half time, but the Eagles held a 22-10 lead. 

The Eagles held their commanding performance into the second half with a try just three minutes in when the forwards pack went to work with Jason Damm powering over the line. 

Six minutes later, lock Nathan Den Hoedt dotted down from short range in the 49th minute, with Hilsenbeck converting both.

Tavite Lopeti added to the points tally slicing through a gap off a sharp setup from Dominic Besag.

Romania made a slight comeback when awarded a penalty try and Nafi Ma'afu was shown a yellow card but the Eagles held momentum with Tom Pittman stepping up to slot a 71st-minute penalty.

Coming on in the replacements, Rhyno Herbst came on for his USA debut while Spencer Huntley entered the match minutes later earning his first official USA Men’s Eagles cap and marking a nod to the USA Rugby Pathways program as another homegrown talent graduated to the international stage.

Closing the match, Marno Redelinghuys burst through the Romanian defense linking up with Rufus McLean for his second try of the match while the Romanians scraped in a late try in the 80th minute to close the game. 

With five straight Nations Cup victories, the Eagles turn their attention to Tbilisi, where the undefeated USA Eagles will go head-to-head against Pool A winner Georgia next week for their final match of the series on Saturday, November 21st at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium.

Both teams will be crowned their Pool’s respective winners with the match deciding overall bragging rights.