It was bound to happen.

We at FloRugby thought, in fact, that the USA national team might lose to Canada in Saturday's Americas 1 World Cup Qualifier. Though the Eagles escaped Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario, with a 28-28 tie, the issues inherent in playing Canada nearly came home to roost. As it is, the second leg of this series is basically a winner-take-all situation this coming weekend in San Diego.

But before the USA can think about securing the Americas 1 spot -- a feat it has never before accomplished -- the Eagles have some playing issues to address.

FULL USA VS. CANADA GAME REPORT HERE

"I guess it's like we're 0-0 now heading back to San Diego, so both sides are very much in it," USA coach John Mitchell after the match. "If either team had got a result today, it would change the game a little, but now it's just a straight game of rugby to see who goes to Japan in two years' time.

"There isn't much between the teams, as you saw today. The team that wins next week is the one that can hold their nerve under pressure. We lived off little bits of possession today, which meant we didn't command enough field position. But we found other ways to keep in the game which was pleasing."

That quote doesn't tell us much. As since this is the final week of Mitchell's tenure as the USA head coach, maybe it's too much to expect a detailed tactical breakdown for the fans. But it shouldn't be true that "there isn't much between the teams."

Even without Blaine Scully, Samu Manoa, Titi Lamositele, Danny Barrett, the Eagles, who are the defending Americas Rugby Championship winners, should be better than Canada.

They Should Be Better In The Lineouts

Lineouts are normally a strength for the USA. But it had several issues where it lost the throw-in to Canada. Was it the throw? Sometimes the throw seemed a shade low. Was it the lift? Yes, that seemed a bit slow. It all needs to be firing, and there's no excuse at this point. The Eagles have been together long enough to get it right. They have a week.

They Should Hang In There In The Scrums

We can't expect the USA scrum to dominate, but backpedaling the way it did at times against Canada is a recipe for disaster. Forwards coach Marty Veale has had ample time to get the scrum better, and we're not seeing it.

Boneheaded Defensive Lapses

With four minutes to go, Canada got a scrum just inside the USA half on the right side (Canada's right side). The ample weakside begged for an eightman pick, and Canada's Aaron Carpenter did exactly that. He waltzed right by the Eagles' Andrew Durutalo, who appeared to be thinking about something else because he made no move from the scrum until Carpenter was by him. This is blindside flanker 101: Get off the scrum and tackle that eightman.

Instead, Carpenter went about 40 meters before Matai Leuta and AJ MacGinty (!) stopped him. Only some desperate defense prevented a try, but Canada did get a penalty, which allowed the game to finish all tied up.

With 12 minutes to go, Canada won a lineout at midfield. After taking the ball into one ruck, Canada suddenly had all sorts of options. The USA looked at sea. Poor Shaun Davies popped up to be the pillar on the right side of the ruck and then saw there was no one ready to defend further to the right. He got instruction from his Eagles teammate MacGinty, who was yelling for someone to go right. Davies chased the ball, and Ben Tarr made the tackle. However, the ball was popped back inside to Canada's DTH van der Merwe, who had a massive hole vacated by Davies and David Tameilau. MacGinty had somehow thought he would be able to fill that hole, but when he said "go right" he was sitting on his backside and was still out of position when van der Merwe ran through.

Kudos to Nate Augspurger for making the tackle to stop a try, but Canada scored moments later to make it 28-25.

But the question remains, where were the tight five forwards around that initial ruck?

About 17 minutes in, Canada won a lineout and set a ruck about 30 meters from the USA tryline and about 20 meters from the sideline. No one set up a defense around this ruck. There was no left pillar. There was no right pillar. There was no one contesting the ruck or patrolling at the back to watch for a pick-and-go. So, van der Merwe picked up the ball and  ran to the corner. Try, simple as that.

Both USA props ran past this ruck to set up somewhere else. Only Augspurger was within two meters of this ruck, and he was offside.

It Could Have Been Worse

Canada had a try disallowed because its showboating wing decided to dive and touch down one-handed when he could have slid in normally and not dropped the ball. Canada had another try on a silver platter when Mike Te'o intercepted a pass and ran 90 meters to score.

Of course, Te'o (with help from a bad pass by Ben Cima) had dropped the ball right in front of his posts to set up that scoring chance for Canada, so it's a bit of give and take.

Final Observations

Will Todd Clever be healthy for this weekend's game? Try stopping him. The soon-to-be retired Eagles captain wants to go out in a blaze of glory in his final international rugby appearance, for sure, but he did get nasty bang on his head that drew blood. That could have been artificial turf burn, though.

How great was it for Nic Civetta to score those two tries. Civetta had to wait a long time for his USA chance and never complained or moaned about it. He just worked hard and got better. He's been one of the better USA players.

The Eagles battled on defense. Several times they were on their own line and didn't give up on the play. That attitude will serve them well. Their problem is defensive organization around the breakdown and set pieces.

If that is fixed, there won't be a slim sliver of daylight between the USA and Canada -- there will be a huge gap.