After a somewhat scattered effort, the USA Men’s 15s national team moved to 4-0 in the Americas Rugby Championship with a 43-16 defeat of Brazil in Sao Paulo.

The Eagles had a fairly good first half (mostly), and salvaged a weird second half with three late tries to put the game away.

The Eagles had to bash their way toe the Brazilian line, but it didn’t take very long to put Mike Te’o over the line. The key play there was a swift catch-and-pass from flyhalf Wiill Magie and a surging run from Psalm Wooching, but it was also just aggressive and very vertical.

Huluholo Moungaloa picked up and touched down after a long period of pressure, and then the Eagles caught a break. Bryce Campbell was his usual power-running self, and got over after basically crawling to the line. Brazil had a case that he should have been penalized, but the try stood.

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— Brasil Rugby (@brasilrugby) February 24, 2018

Up 19-3, the Eagles put Hanco Germishuys over for a 26-3 lead. But things became difficult after that.

Brazil scored a snappy try to make it 26-10 at the break, and after that Nick Civetta got a yellow card for a high tackle that was lucky to only be a yellow.

Frustrated and a little frantic, the USA started giving up penalties, and Josh Reeves punished those infractions with six more points. 

The USA couldn’t score, although Germishuys did cap off a lovely movement started by Paul Lasike, only to have it called back for a forward pass.

But with about 14 minutes to go the Brazilians showed they could take stupid penalties, too, and with Diego Lopez in the sin bin, Tony Lamborn scored to end a 36-minute scoring drought.

That seemed to energize the Eagles, and a long counter-attack sparked by Josh Whippy put Germishuys in for his second of the night.

Moments later, the flanker took his third to put a stamp on the game.

It wasn’t the full 80 minutes head coach Gary Gold said he wanted, but it was a bonus-point win, and as a result, Argentina will need a victory tonight, and next week, and a USA loss, to overtake the Eagles for the ARC title.

Next week, the USA plays Uruguay, which beat Chile 67-15 and has been on fire of late.

USA 43

Tries: Te’o, Moungaloa, Campbell, Germishuys 3, Lamborn

Convs: Magie 3, Cima 

Brazil 16

Tries: Tupi

Convs: Reeves

Pens: Reeves 3