USA coach Scott Lawrence praised his side’s determination after they wrote their name on the Rugby World Cup 2027 qualifiers’ team-sheet with a hard-fought 29-13 win over Samoa in the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup fifth-place play-off at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, in Denver.
“Every morning for the last three years I’ve woken up visualising this moment, and seeing them lifting that [Qualified banner] up and the smiles on their faces – I’m glad that it happened,” he said, after his charges scored three times in the closing 10 minutes to break the game.
“We fought for 80. We hadn’t scored a try in Q4 for a couple of games, and we put it away. We were trying to qualify and get experience at the same time. It’s done. Now we can prepare for ’27.”
Defeat hasn’t ended Samoa’s hopes of making the trip to Australia in two years. They go into a two-leg play-off against losing Sudamericano 2025 finalists Chile over the next two weekends.
It was a cagey, scrappy affair under the afternoon Colorado sun. But, throughout, USA – coming into the game on the back of five straight defeats – were better at the rugby things that put hard work over rugby talent.
USA captain Jason Damm praised his side’s efforts: “We knew we were going to get it done,” he told Rugbypass TV immediately afterwards. “We kept putting in the work, kept believing. To do it in front of a home crowd, cheering us on, it was incredible.
“We focused on connection. We knew the pieces were going to come together, we knew we just had to keep getting together.”
Samoa dominated all facets of an intense and hard-fought first half except the one that mattered – the scoreboard. Rodney Iona landed two penalties at either end of the opening period, but missed two more kickable chances, as the Eagles defended determinedly and smartly, until Pono Davis was yellow carded for a tackle off the ball two minutes before the break.
When they did get hands on the ball, USA proved just as determined and more clinical in attack. Samoa had missed several chances to score a try by the time a skip pass found Toby Fricker in acres of space out wide, after his forwards had patiently built up the pressure close to the line.
After a scoreless third quarter, replacement scrum-half Melani Matavao made an immediate impact in the second half, feeding Olajuwon Noa from the back of a ruck to burst through USA’s defensive line. One more pass on a two-on-one and Melani Nanai was over. Suddenly, having struggled, Samoa had a 13-8 lead.
The Eagles were far from done, however. Luke Carty darted over five minutes later at the end of copy-and-paste patient phase play from the forwards. Mitch Wilson slotted the conversion to take the home side back into the lead.
Damm then forced his way over with less than seven minutes left on the clock to extend USA’s lead. And Kaleb Geiger took them out of Samoa’s late reach almost from the restart, after the Eagles’ were first to react to a loose ball in their own half. A hack ahead, a chase and some panicked defence gave De Haas all the time he needed to pick out the charging replacement front row.
Samoa captain Michael Alaalatoa took the defeat on the chin. “I don’t have the words right now to describe the feeling we have – we’re extremely disappointed.
“Fair play to the USA, they played very well in the second half. We threw a lot of shots [in the] first-half but we didn’t convert our opportunities. That kept them in the game. They won the arm wrestle in the second half – they were too good in the end.
“We had our moments. We’d have a good attacking phase and they were really good at the breakdown, over the ball, and turn us over.”
Looking ahead to the two-leg play-off against Chile, he added: “It’s hugely important. We came here today with the goal to qualify. The job’s not finished. We have to review this game, have a look at the things we need to work on and move forward, as hard as it is.”
Coach Tusi Pisi echoed his captain’s sentiment. “It’s disappointing,” he said, bluntly. “We’re in this situation now, it’s on us. We’ve got to dig our way out of it.”
