The Eagles thrashed Samoa but missed the quarter-finals on points differential. Nonetheless, a joyful display was fitting for a team showing encouraging signs
T
he US Eagles exited the World Cup on Saturday after beating Samoa 60-0 in York but seeing Australia hold England to 47-7 in Brighton, enough for the Wallaroos to reach the quarter-finals on points differential.
Kate Zackary’s team will be disappointed to miss a last-eight date with Canada, knowing they might well have made it had a few things gone differently.
In the first game, in front of nearly 43,000 fans in Sunderland on a historic night for women’s rugby, England might have been held to less than 69-7. In the second and third games, better goal-kicking would have helped. But for five missed conversions, Samoa would have been beaten 70-0. As it turned out, that still would not have been enough, but missed kicks also cost the US victory against Australia in round two, a 31-31 tie that will go down as a World Cup classic but also a missed chance for a historic American win.
