World Rugby U20 Trophy: USA take control of Pool B with win over ...

USA kicked off the second day of the World Rugby U20 Championship at Hive Stadium, in Edinburgh, with a statement win over last year’s beaten finalists Uruguay in the opening match of the second day, to put themselves clear at the top of Pool B with one round of matches to play.

Scotland, fresh from a record-breaking victory over Samoa in their opening match, face Hong Kong China in the second match of the afternoon, before Japan take on Samoa, and Netherlands face Kenya.

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USA took control of Pool B, as they avenged a tight defeat in last year’s tournament with a comfortable victory over Uruguay to win their second match of this year’s competition

Each nation had won two of their four previous meetings, with the last three encounters have been decided by no more than two points – most recently at last year’s U20 Trophy in Kenya, where Uruguay edged a titanic battle 33-31 thanks to a converted try in the 75th minute, having raced into a 13-0 lead in the first 13 minutes.

The first-half at Hive Stadium was more slow-burn than that match in 2023, with USA’s 18-year-old fly-half Benjamin Saunders’ sixth-minute penalty the only score of the opening quarter as both sides struggled to keep their hands on the ball in the face of some strong defence.

But the match was no-less intense than a year earlier. Uruguay had the upper hand at the set-piece, winning penalty after penalty at the scrum, while USA looked more dangerous in unstructured play, especially when they went wide. 

Uruguay, however, were the first to register a try, with a clever lineout strike move after a penalty kick to touch. They faked to maul, but passed the ball back to the blindside, where hooker Francisco Garcia had a clear run to the line. 

A penalty just before halftime extended Uruguay’s lead – but USA were back in front 10 minutes into the second half via two well-struck Saunders’ penalties.

Uruguay’s narrow defence was caught out minutes later, following a perfectly judged 50:22 kick from new arrival Oliver Cline, on for Saunders. The ball was spun wide from the lineout to find winger Corbin Smith in wide-open spaces. 

USA got outside Uruguay’s defence again for Keelan Farrell to run under the posts with 14 minutes left.

It looked like the USA were going to run away with it – but Uruguay cut the deficit almost at once, as Santiago Gini raced in under the posts. 

A Cline penalty from the restart opened-up the gap again. But, despite their best efforts in the closing minutes – Dylan Fortune was held up and Saunders could not hang on to the ball with the line begging – they could not score the bonus-point try.