Hanco Cuatro As USA Selects Beat Canada A In APC Finale

Hanco Cuatro As USA Selects Beat Canada A In APC Finale

The USA Selects capped off the Americas Pacific Challenge with a 45-26 defeat of Canada A to finish 2-1.

Oct 15, 2017 by Alex Goff
Hanco Cuatro As USA Selects Beat Canada A In APC Finale

The USA Selects capped off the Americas Pacific Challenge with a 45-26 defeat of Canada A on Sunday in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The result was in doubt until a couple of fortunate calls for the USA team helped it score two tries to put the game away and finish 2-1 in the tournament. Canada A's power running among the forwards and good mauling kept the northerners close, but four tries from USA Selects No. 8 Hanco Germishuys and some impressive passing and interplay between forwards and backs saw the Americans through.

Germishuys was red-carded in the first game of the tournament; however, he received no further punishment from tournament officials after it became evident that he'd done nothing wrong and the red card was unwarranted. Still, Germishuys didn't start against Uruguay, and this was his big chance for retribution. He started strong, scoring the opening try off an eightman pick.

Canada replied, but the USA Selects tries kept coming. Following a thunderous score from Bryce Campbell, the Selects forwards bashed their way against the line before Germishuys muscled his way through a tackler to touch down.

Saint Mary's halfbacks Holden Yungert and Mike McCarthy worked nicely together and -- along with another former Gael, Tim Maupin -- set up prop Angus MacLellan for a try to give the USA a 26-12 lead at the break. 

But once again Canada didn't back down and worked its forwards over to make it 26-19. However, a break by Josh Whippy and a nifty give-and-go between Ruben de Haas and Ben Cima put de Haas over beneath the posts.


Once again, the Canadians replied and the conversion was good to keep them within a try at 33-26. This is where the game could have turned. Canada worked its way down to the USA Selects tryline and earned a scrum. 

Going for the drive over, Canada could have received a penalty as the scrums seemed to disintegrate. However, the referee called for a turnover for the USA, and the Americans were able to clear. Soon thereafter, a yellow card to Canada put the USA Selects up a man.

The Selects got immediate benefits, sending the ball out wide to Germishuys, who stiff-armed and rumbled his way from 50 meters out. The No. 8 seemed to injure himself on the play but scored the try anyway and stayed in the game.

As time wound down, Cima caught a pass with his fingertips and sent a hard pass to Germishuys, who juggled it and managed to control the ball before scoring.

It was an impressive performance on the offensive side for the Americans, but they struggled with big, physical runners in the inside channels. Still, a 2-1 finish is a very good result for the USA Selects.


USA Selects, 45

TRIES: Germishuys 4, MacLellan, Campbell, de Haas
CONVS: Eloff 5, Cima 2

Canada A, 26

TRIES: Barkwell, Du Toit, Lloyd, Rumball
CONVS: Povey 3


Also in the APC, Tonga A surprised Samoa A 31-28 to join the USA at 2-1. The Selects have more bonus points. Argentina, as of this writing, is set to beat Uruguay A by a large margin to finish as the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Results and standings here.