kevin_standlee | Well, We Avoided Triple Digits

For about thirty seconds, the USA Eagles led the New Zealand Maori, 3-0, just after the start of the Barclay's Churchill Cup match this evening in Santa Clara. then the Maori went to town on the Eagles and began to score tries seemingly at will. The USA got one more penalty goal (and several misses from 40-plus meters out) and came within half a meter of one try, but were otherwise not much of a factor. The final score was 74-6.

NZ will play Ireland on Saturday at 2 PM at what promises to be the best of the three US pool matches. The announcer said they are predicting a sellout. (Tonight's attendance was about 3,600, which was a significant proportion of Buck Shaw Stadium. I expect the place might hold 5,000 in a pinch.) So Dave Gallaher and I had better get there early so we can get tickets.

All six teams in the tournament will go on to Edmonton for the second round, with the winners of each pool playing for the Churchill Cup, the 2nd place teams contesting for the Plate, and the 3rd place teams (probably the USA and Canada; however, if Canada upset England Saxons on Saturday, the USA will play England) playing the consolation match for the Bowl.

In the Canada pool, Scotland A squeezed out a win against Canada by a score of 15-10 and will play the winner of the NZ-Ireland A match for the Cup.

Update, Thursday 08:00: Corrected the score, put in a link to a story about the rout, and listed the results of the other pool match.