Sunday sees the Americas Pacific Challenge finish up, and the USA pretty much can’t win.

That’s OK, that wasn’t necessarily the expectation. The USA Selects are 1-1 and play Canada A, which has struggled. The Americans are probably favored, and finishing 2-1 would be a nice, deserved boost to the USA Selects. 

Argentina XV should win the event. The Argentines play Uruguay A and should win without much trouble, going 3-0. Samoa A will play Tonga A and is favored, and would then finish 2-1. USA Selects, with a bonus-point win over Canada, can take 2nd, because the Americas have more bonus points than Samoa A.

(This even though Samoa A beat USA Selects, but that’s OK, because the red card the USA team suffered against Samoa shouldn’t have been called.)

USA Selects captain Peter Malcolm said Wednesday’s victory over Uruguay A was perhaps a bit too high-scoring (36 points allowed), but showed the team is coming together.

“Our comfort with each other has greatly improved,” said Malcolm. “We also really committed to our game plan of just getting on top of them and staying on top with offloads, and quick rucks.”

Malcolm added that since the first half against Samoa A the USA team’s execution and scoring touch in the red zone has been good. They would like to get that red card back, but, added the captain and hooker, it’s time to look forward.

“It’s in the past now and you can’t dwell on it,” Malcolm said. “That was the attitude coming into Uruguay and it worked well for us.”