The positive for the Eagles from Sunday's match against Scotland was that the Eagles held a lead for the first time at halftime against a Tier I nation when they led 13-6 at the break. The negative was that they completely fell apart in the second half giving up three quick tries to Scotland in an eventual 39-16 loss. It was a frustrating result for the Eagles once again having played very well at times but committing a number of errors that led to easy scores for their opponents. In particular the U.S. struggled mightily in the line out and with errant kicks from hand. That neutralized what had been a good defense and an excellent scrum.
The U.S. will now face a ten day layoff before they take on South Africa at the Olympic Stadium in London. Realistically the Eagles would have to rely on a miracle to make the quarterfinals and are barely holding on the the chance of third place in the pool. They would need help and to keep the score close against South Africa and beat Japan. They would also need to improve on point differential with unfortunately blossomed in the second half against Scotland.
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Playing with controlled energy and feeding on mistakes and penalties from Scotland the Eagles took a 3-0 lead just a couple minutes into the match when MacGinty hit a long shot at goal. Scotland did have their chances after the penalty and after six minutes were able to level the score when Stuart Hogg hit a long penalty of his own.
The U.S. had plenty of opportunities in the first half but throughout the first 20 minutes the U.S. line out was either not straight or overthrown killing opportunities and allowing Scotland to apply pressure. Fortunately for the Eagles their defense came up firm and Scotland's backs, who were dangerous, weren't able to sync up. Another positive for the Eagles early was the play of their scrum with easily had the better of Scotland.
Scotland took a 6-3 lead when Finn Russell hit an easy penalty and almost added three more but Hogg's penalty was off. The first try of the match went to the Eagles on another highlight play. Off their best line out of the match the ball was worked quickly to Samu Manoa who made a break. Andrew Durutalo got the offload who then played a cheeky ball to Phil Thiel who made it inches from the line. The U.S. used their forwards after that and saw Titi Lamositele cross over. With MacGinty's conversion they held a 10-6 lead with 20 minutes gone.
The U.S. continued to have the better of the play in the second half. Seamus Kelly had a big break but the Eagles weren't able to convert. They continued to maintain good possession but weren't able to punch in for more. Defensively they gave up a penalty opportunity that Hogg missed and Taku Ngwenya had a monster tackle on Peter Horne. The Eagles then finished off the half with a penalty from MacGinty.
Unfortunately for the Eagles all the momentum they gained the first half disappeared almost immediately in the second half. Quick play and better connection from the backs saw Tim Visser score first for Scotland and then just a few minutes later Sean Maitland joined in. With the tries Scotland suddenly went from being down 13-6 to being up 18-13. The backs for Scotland certainly connected but they dominated the second half thanks to work from their forwards who did well to keep possession and put the Eagles defense out of sorts. Scotland would score their third try of the second half with WP Nel scoring in the 53rd minute.
Now down 25-16 the Eagles faced a big gap and began to make changes. Some of those changes helped but some didn't work out as well. The U.S. scrum wasn't able to hold up as well and they began to commit more penalties. They also continually did themselves in with very poor kicks from hand. That allowed Scotland to camp out in the 22 and eventually piled in a fourth try, this time from Matt Scott.
The Eagles did have a couple of opportunities to grab a late try but knock-ons and simple errors cost them. Scotland scored a final try through Duncan Weir with only seconds left on the clock to make the final score 39-16.
Overall the Eagles will have to be disappointed. The game was there for the taking but they let their concentration lapse and they made the small mistakes that good teams punish. Once again there were positive elements to take away from the match but at some point the Eagles can't be happy with moral victories. They've played well at the World Cup but they are going to need a victory at some point.
After the match captain Chris Wyles said: "Again, our discipline let us down. You can't give away easy points and easy penalties to a team like Scotland. We're upset with our discipline. We came into halftime and we were happy where we were. I thought we put a good foot forward. We were being physical, we were being direct, keeping the ball. But in the second half discipline let us down. We need some time to regroup. We'll take a look at the reasons why we let ourselves down in that second half but the first half was a big positive for us and we'll take that looking forward."
Head coach Mike Tolkin said: "We struggled to get out of our end. We kept finding ourselves in the 22 against a driving maul and three quick tries from Scotland did us in. Their experience off the bench helped but we got ourselves into trouble with some decision making, some errant kicks where we should have kept it in hand."
Scotland
Tries: Visser, Maitland, Nel, Scott, Weir
Conversions: Russell, Laidlaw (3)
Penalties: Hogg, Russell
U.S.
Tries: Lamositele
Conversions: MacGinty
Penalties: MacGinty (3)