USA down to the Maori All Blacks 19-29

USA Eagles vs Maori All Blacks 

Its cold here in the East Coast, United States, but not too cold for the Rugby Fans who turned in massive numbers to support the USA Eagles against world class Rugby team - the Maori All Blacks (MABs). Rugby in USA is not so popular compared to other sports such as American Football, Baseball, and Basketball, but many young people now showing tremendous interest in it. Known AFL players who crossed over to Rugby also brings the name of Rugby to the forefront. And tonight, the visiting Maori team gives the USA Eagles the opportunity to prove themselves they are worth of the game - and they did.
The US Eagles' forward is extremely effective in carrying and protecting the ball, but the backliners aint' so good. On the other hand, the MABs forward is very effective as evident with the way Afeaki outran US forwards, and the blackline is far effective. So tonight, it is obvious from the US game-plan that they going to take the game to the MABs forwards and keep the ball as much as possible. It worked extremely well in the first-half. The Maoris registered the first points of the match: 7 - 0, but by the end of the first-half, however, USA had successfully converted all penalties into 9 points leading the MABs 9 - 7.
The second-half is quite another story. Its obvious from the MAB's opening minutes that they would use their fast runners against the much slower Eagle backline, something the Maori did extremely effective against Canada last weekend. And so they did. They also won majority of the breakdowns and effectively fending off US Eagles attackers in their own half. And in the end, the All Blacks successfully scored three Trys to take the lead and crashed the Eagle's attack in very effective ways right to the final whistle.
Failures of the Eagles. The second-half was an absolute mess. Forward players ran off with the ball and isolated from the rest of the pack. This gave the Maoris the advantage to compete and win the ball. And, unlike the first-half, Eagles committed too many unnecessary forward players to the Ruck against one or two Maoris giving the away spaces and numeral advantage to the Maori counter attack. Also, the Eagles forward lost its footing in most of the scrums of the second-half unlike the first half. This is an area the Maoris dominated the in the second-half and won critical scrums inside the Eagles own half.
Failures of the Maoris. Coming from a very powerful Rugby nation - the No: 1 ranked in the world - the Maoris are used to fast moving games. But such game-plan can only effective against another fast phase Rugby team. As a result, a lot of Maori players either entered the Ruck in the wrongside or getting off their feet thinking they had the ball secured. For most Referees, the person moving forward - how ever legitimate or legal he may be - is perceived to be either entering incorrectly or attacking the Scrum-half which is illegal according to IRB Laws.
Failures of the Referee. I'll give the referee a -A for his performance. He was absolutely fair in the first half but then he began to let go of the serious offences committed by, mostly, USA Eagles and sometimes reluctant to blow the whistle against the Eagles even though the Maoris won the ball in the breakdown. It is obvious that the referee gave US so much slack in the second half against an effective opponent. For instance, he issued a yellow card against the Maoris but only penalizing Eagle players in very critical spots inside the Eagle's half. Most referees don't tolerate unnecessary foul-play near the Try-line. Professional offence is "automatic yellow". And he obviously not as stricter as other Referees are when it comes to "clear release" of the tackled player. According to the IRB law, a tackler must show clear 'indication' that he'd let go of the opponent before attempting to win back the ball. In the first half, there was no clear ruling on this and Maoris - and some occasions, Eagles - took advantage of this to snatch the ball away from opponents. But all referees, to be fair, do have their own style of refereeing or officiating in such high competitive settings.
Rubbish technology. Can you believe this game took place in the home of computer technology yet the communications between officials, players, and other officials were hardly audible? This is absolutely stunning. They should improve the electronic communication between officials so that viewers have a good idea of what was said in the fields and between referees and TMO and Touch-judges. Rugby is an exciting sports when you know whats going on in the field of play.