Biggest Win In Eagles History? USA Upsets Scotland In Thriller

The USA Men's National Team earned a historic victory on Saturday.

In an absolute thriller at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston—seen LIVE on FloRugby—the Eagles shocked Scotland 30-29, logging the team's first-ever victory over a Tier 1 team.

In a dramatic finish, Scotland scored at the death, but Stuart Hogg's conversion sailed wide, and the Eagles held on to win. The final try was, itself, controversial, as just about every USA fan in the stadium thought the final pass to try-scorer Dougie Fife was forward.

No matter, some sterling defense, and a few moments of brilliance saw the Eagles win a famous victory.

Nightmare—Or Dream Start

The game itself provided a dream start for Scotland, as the tourists did exactly what they wanted. A turnover allowed the Scottish backs to operate in space and wing Blair Kinghorn was over in the corner. Stuart Hogg converted and it was 7-0 Scotland with only 70 seconds gone.

But just as they had done against Russia, the Americans weathered the early try and upped their play. Scotland did well to run the phases and force the USA to play defense, but that the Americans were up to the challenge.

Penalty Try

With Scotland on the attack there was finally a breakthrough. Center Peter Horne spun out of a tackle and had a split second to find his younger brother, scrumhalf George Horne, and the debutant was off to the tryline. Coming in fast was Samu Manoa, who leveled the scrumhalf, but his arm wrapped high, and after a long deliberation, referee Wayne Barnes ruled the tackle high—a yellow card for the USA lock, and a penalty try as Manoa was the final defender between Horne and pay dirt.

The penalty try meant no conversion was needed and Scotland led 14-3.

The USA came back to get three points after some solid work, but true try-scoring opportunities were difficult to find.

Hookers Takes A Bow

The next try was a prime example of how good Scotland is at turning the game around.

After a poor clearance kick gave Blaine Scully some running room, the USA captain was tackled and tried to get back up without the referee noticing. He noticed, and Stuart Hogg thumped the ball about 55 meters. Suddenly, Scotland was on the attack, and after a lineout, mauled it over.

For Turner, it was his fourth try in 85 minutes and left him tied with Ross Ford and Gordon Bullock for the most tries ever by a Scotland hooker.

It was another No. 2 jersey going over right off the restart.

The Eagles chased the kick well and forced a fumble that Bryce Campbell gathered. From there, it was another case of probing for small gaps. Scully cut back and got a few meters, and Cam Dolan rescued a loose ball. But the big move was Taufete’e, who picked up from the ruck, spun and wriggled his way over for a try under the posts.

MacGinty converted and it was 21-13. Hogg got a penalty right after that and the teams went to the locker rooms with Scotland ahead 24-13.

But, at the beginning of the second half, the big Long Beach hooker did the job again. A penalty for a high tackle allowed MacGinty to send a long kick to touch. From about 10 meters out the Eagles set up a maul, which went nowhere, and then Taufete'e broke off, bounced a Scot onto his backside, and beat three more to stretch over for a superb effort.

MacGinty converted and at 44 minutes it was 24-20.

Moments later, it was 24-23 as a Scottish penalty let the USA off the hooker, and another set up MacGinty for a penalty goal from a difficult angle.

The Eagles certainly on the front foot after that, and while both teams were starting to show the effects of a punishing game, the Americans were certainly the aggressors.

A Kick To The Gut

The game had its periods of kicking, with neither team really getting the upper hand in the back-and-forth. That all changed around the 60th minute.

MacGinty fielded a couple of kicks, and then instead of booting the ball deep, lofted a high ball and chased. Under that ball was Scottish No. 8 Matt Fagerson—and he dropped it.

In the humid weather, the ball was often slick with sweat and condensation, and certainly, it slid easily through Fagerson's hands. MacGinty was there, gathered the ball, kept going, fed Hanco Germishuys on his left, and the flanker slid in at the corner.

The crowd exploded—and erupted yet again when MacGinty thumped over the touchline conversion attempt for a 30-24 USA lead.

Scotland Replies ... Or Not

From a relatively innocuous lineout, Kinghorn cut through some iffy USA tackling and was almost through. Somehow the Eagles held on and MacGinty dragged down one massive Scottish runner.

Then, Mark Bennett was through with only Shaun Davies to beat. The scrumhalf took the big center down, but in-goal. And just as Bennet reached to put the ball down on the grass, Ben Landry—on the field for just a minute or so, pounced on the ball and knocked it loose. Barnes checked with assistant referee Federico Anselmi and the confirmed: no try.

The Eagles had escaped.

Drama To The End

The game ended with Scotland pounding the USA defense in the Eagles' 22. Time and again the USA team repelled the Scottish attack, and eventually the Americans cleared the ball away. A Scottish hand had tipped that kick, so a lineout for the Eagles allowed the USA to possibly run out the clock—until it didn't.

A diving-over penalty led to Scotland getting one more shot. They took it.

After a long wait because of a serious leg injury to John Quill (a Scottish player alerted medical about it while play was going on), Scotland finally found a gap. A long pass to Fife set up the try, but it wasn't enough.

This is the seventh time these two nations have played. Scotland did not award caps in the first game, in 1991, but did so the next five times. All of those games were Scotland wins. In fact, the USA managed only three tries combined in those games. They scored three in this game alone.

Scotland 29

Tries: Kinghorn, Penalty Try, Turner, Fife

Convs: Hogg 2, Penalty Try

Pens: Hogg

USA 30

Tries: Taufete’e 2, Germishuys

Convs: MacGinty 3

Pens: MacGinty 3

Scotland Lineup			USA Lineup
Pos	Player	Club	Pos	Player	Club
1	Jamie Bhatti	Glasgow Warriors	1	Eric Fry	Vannes Rugby (FRA)
2	George Turner	Glasgow Warriors	2	Joe Taufete'e	Worcester Warriors (ENG)
3	Zander Ferguson	Glasgow Warriors	3	Paul Mullen	Houston SaberCats
4	Lewis Carmichael	Edinburgh	4	Samu Manoa	Toulon (FRA)
5	Ben Tools	Edinburgh	5	Nick Civetta	Newcastle Falcons (ENG)
6	Tim Swinson	Glasgow Warriors	6	John Quill	Glendale Raptors
7	Luke Hamilton	Unattached	7	Hanco Germishuys	Austin Elite
8	Matt Fagerson	Glasgow Warriors	8	Cam Dolan	San Diego Legion
9	George Horne	Glasgow Warriors	9	Shaun Davies	Glendale Raptors
10	Adam Hastings	Glasgow Warriors	10	AJ MacGinty	Sale Sharks (ENG)
11	Byron McGuigan	Sale Sharks	11	Marcel Brache	Perth/Western Force (AUS)
12	Pete Horne	Glasgow Warriors	12	Paul Lasike	Utah Warriors
13	Nick Grigg	Glasgow Warriors	13	Bryce Campbell	Glendale Raptors
14	Blair Kinghorn	Edinburgh	14	Blaine Scully (C)	Cardiff Blues
15	Stuart Hogg	Glasgow Warriors	15	Will Hooley	Bedford Blues (ENG)

	Reserves			Reserves
16	Fraser Brown	Glasgow Warriors (@51 for Brown)	16	Dylan Fawsitt	Glendale Raptors (@77 for Taufete'e)
17	Allan Dell	Edinburgh (@57 for Bhatti)	17	Titi Lamositele	Saracens (ENG) (@62 for Fry)
18	Murray McCallum	Edinburgh (@57 for Ferguson)	18	Chris Baumann	Leicester Tigers (ENG) (@68 for Mullen)
19	Grant Gilchrist	Edinburgh (@53 for Carmichael)	19	Greg Peterson	Glasgow Warriors (@64 for Manoa)
20	David Denton	Leicester Tigers (@64 for Fagerson)	20	Ben Landry	Glendale Raptors (@64 for Civetta, off @73 @80 for Quill)
21	Sam Hidalgo-Clyne	Scarlets (@64	21	Nate Augspurger	San Diego Legion (@68 for Davies)
22	Mark Bennett	Edinburgh @57 for Grigg)	22	Will Magie	Glendale Raptors (@80 for Germishuys)
23	Dougie Fife	Edinburgh (@72 for McGuigan)	23	Dylan Audsley	San Diego Legion (@74 for Lasike)