Clinical Scotland defeat Men’s Eagles in Edinburgh

The USA Eagles kicked off their Autumn International Tour against Scotland in Edinburgh’s Murrayfield.

Despite some defensive shifts opening their campaign, the home team locked into an early stride, holding momentum and firing into the try zone throughout the 80 minutes. 

Speaking on the performance, Head Coach Scott Lawrence reflected,

”The first 15 minutes of the game told the story, it gave Scotland a lot of confidence and created a little shell-shock for our boys. As a developing team, we know the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game are going to be difficult as well.”

“You could look at that game and say everything went wrong, but there are some things that became very clear. Scotland was clinical and exploited a couple areas, and exploited them a number of times. So there are now some common elements that we can take away, where we can show up going forward.”

“It’s been since September 14th since these guys were last in a competitive environment, so we always knew this week would be a challenge.”

Scotland’s opening try came off a scrum penalty meters from the line leaning into the strength of their pack to drive forward and score off a pick from the blind side. Scotland soon followed up with subsequent tries capitalizing on space manipulating width to run through the USA defense. 

The Eagles saw moments of forward ball in phase play halting Scottish momentum for periods, but the home team knew where to expose gaps in the line to run in against the USA. Scotland settled into their cadence executing their set piece and running attack lines favoring the speed of their backs, sucking in the USA defensive line and capitalizing on the breaks in the Eagles structure. Scotland stonewalled the USA attempts at points before the half-time whistle and the Eagles were forced to regroup scoreless.

Scotland attacked from the restart with the intensity they opened with, however the Eagles managed to disrupt the Scottish rhythm slowing down the home team's cadence to convert. 

A Tavite Lopeti out the back handoff injected some thrilling pace for the Eagles showing glimpses of the USA’s ability to level up to this top tier international test level. However, strong set play throughout the second half from the Scots and decisive running lines continued to upset their quest for further points while conceding no tries to the visitors and ending in a final 85-0 scoreline.  

Ready to regroup, the USA Eagles travel to Batumi where they will take on Georgia next Saturday November 8th at 7:00am ET.

Scott Lawrence | Head Coach + GM

Nick Easter | Assistant Coach - Defense

Steve Brett | Assistant Coach - Attack & Skills

Agustin Cavalieri | Assistant Coach - Forwards

Blake Bradford | Assistant Coach - Scrum

Jimmy Harrison | Analyst

Declan Oorloff | Analyst

Rodolfo Broggi | Athletic Performance Coach

Matoko Noudehou | Strength and Conditioning

Michael Sheridan | Lead Athletic Trainer

Delaney Cassidy | Assistant Athletic Trainer

Willie Berlanga | Massage Therapist

Matthew Schmitz | Team Doctor (Scotland & Georgia)

Marc Kowalsky | Team Doctor (Romania)

Nick Colling | Team Manager

Scotland vs USA | (L) 85-0

Nov 1  | Scottish Gas Murrayfield | Edinburgh, SCO

Georgia vs USA | Nov 8, 7:00am ET

Adjarabet Arena | Batumi, GEO

Watch LIVE on Paramount+

Romania vs USA | Nov 15, 10:00am ET

Arcul du Triumf | Bucharest, ROM

Watch LIVE on Paramount+