USA v Scotland: Five things we learnt as Tommaso Boni offers ‘light relief’ on week Rugby World Cup trophy visits the Capitol

USA ended their summer series with a 42-7 loss to Scotland at Audi Field in Washington DC last Friday and here are five things we learnt from the Eagles’ showing.

While not having tasted victory in either of their games, the Eagles are sure to have gleaned much over the course of 160 minutes and we pick out those lessons.

Scotland make forward dominance count

Just a week prior, Gregor Townsend’s Scotland had put Canada to the sword by scoring 11 tries in Ottawa.

A week later the much-changed side were back dominating on the pitch with another six tries on the board.

While Duhan van der Merwe’s try, which equalled Stuart Hogg’s 27 for his country, may have taken the headlines, it was up front that the game was won.

The Eagles had no response for the lineout drives that sent Ewan Ashman over the whitewash on three occasions, while George Horne and Matt Fagerson’s tries did the rest of the work.

Scotland had clearly identified the set-piece as something to attack.

That combined with the Eagles giving away penalties in kickable positions and the end result was inevitable.

Boni try offers light relief for Eagles supporters

After a heavy defeat the positives are often more difficult to find.

But for Eagles fans look no further than Tommaso Boni’s score in the 32nd minute.

With David Ainu’u in the sin bin, the Eagles set their base from five metres out to launch an attack from the scrum.

Ewan Ashman grabs first-half hat-trick as Scotland see off USA in wet-weather Washington win

Three phases on from that scrum the ex-Italy international was dotting down and providing AJ MacGinty with the opportunity to open his account for the afternoon.

A small silver lining in an otherwise disappointing evening in the nation’s capital, the drive to keep pushing for a try with a player short and already three tries down, it showed impressive perseverance from Scott Lawrence’s team.

Don’t look north of the border

After being felled by Romania in Chicago a week ago, north of the border Canada plotted a 35-22 win over the same opposition.

A second-half brace for New England Free Jacks hooker Andrew Quattrin and a try for Ethan Fryer went a long way to handing Kingsley Jones’ side a win.

Naming an unchanged side after their 22-20 win over the Eagles a week prior, Canada proved too energetic and resourceful for their visitors.

While comparisons are not always the fairest way of comparing things, Canada are a team whose decline has been far greater and longer.

Maybe just having arrested the slide sooner, it is apparent that Romania were a more than beatable team and makes a frustrating loss at SeatGeek Stadium all the more difficult to look back on.

Support strong on home soil

There has always been an element of ‘build it and they will come’ for rugby in the USA.

Over the years we have seen attendances of over 22,000 at venues for Test matches and for this fixture there were 17,418 surrounding the pitch at Audi Field.

For a Friday night fixture in the capital of the USA, it was a terrific show of support for a minority sport.

It also shows a growth in thought of game organisers, who in the same city almost three years ago hosted the All Blacks at the Washington Commanders’ Commanders Field.

As New Zealand registered 16 tries and over a century of points that day, empty seats dwarfed the players on a day to forget on home soil.

Through playing games at these smaller soccer venues, it creates a unique ecosystem for Test rugby in the USA.

Less seats mean that the clamour to be in attendance is greater, it looks better on screen and a more enticing offer for potential long-term stakeholders.

Webb Ellis visits the Capitol

On the same week that Joe Biden mistakenly introduced Volodymyr Zelanskyy, president of Ukraine, as Russian president Vladimir Putin, and called his vice president, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, the Webb Ellis Cup visited the Capitol.

In fact, rugby was the talk of the town all week in Washington DC.

Alex Mooney welcomed the Eagles to Congress the day before the Friday fixture and 70 representatives from across the country were welcomed to the Capitol Building as part of a Host City Summit.

Having missed out on the last Rugby World Cup, it is an event that can reignite some of the excitement of hosting Rugby World Cups in 2031 and 2033.

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