It looked like the Eagles were in a battle early against Wales in their second pool play match at the Hong Kong 7s but thanks to great work at the breakdown and better offloading the U.S. eventually ran away 40-12 winners. Coupled with England's win over Kenya in the earlier match the U.S. have booked another spot in the Cup round. They will face England for first place in the pool in their last match of the day.
The match didn't get off to a bright start for the Eagles as Carlin Isles picked up an early yellow card. The U.S. weren't able to handle the sloppy ball and when the Welsh player kicked ahead for what should have been a run away try, Isles tugged on his jersey to hold him up. However, rather than capitalizing, it was the U.S. that would score out of the situation. They won the ball back and patient play eventually saw Madison Hughes open the scoring. Not only were the Eagles up 7-0 but they also ran out the time on the yellow card.
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Only minutes later the U.S. was on the board again. Showing great patience once again the U.S. eventually found Zack Test who scored the first of his three tries. Danny Barrett then made a break and fed to Hughes and the rout was on as the Eagles held a 21-0 lead.
Wales scored via Jevon Groves at the end of the half and Rhodri Williams scored at the beginning of the second half to make things interesting at 21-12 but the U.S. were simply too strong at the breakdown. Time and time again they came up with turnovers that not only won them possession but allowed them to put Wales on the back foot.
Perry Baker was the next to score after Maka Unufe made a long break. Unufe in particular was strong on the day but on this particular play credit goes to Danny Barrett who won the restart and stemmed the tide of Welsh possession. Test then finished off his hat-trick with two more tries to seal the victory.
The U.S. will play England at 4:42 a.m. et/1:42 a.m. pt.
Starters: Barrett, Test, Niua, Hughes, Unufe, Durutalo, Isles.