The USA dropped their second pool game of the Wellington 7s as they lost 29-12 to Canada in the rain.
The USA started off well, when Zack Test nabbed the tap-back on the kickoff and quickly made ground. Canada did well to corral Carlin Isles, but all that attention left a little space for Test, who ran through a half-gap and then offloaded to Andrew Durutalo, who slid into the corner for a 5-0 lead.
The Eagles won the restart and Isles had a little break, but Canada turned the ball over in the tackle and then Phil Mack sent a perfect grubber into the corner. Connor Braid and Isles raced for it, and Braid did well to box out Isles and get to the ball first - however, Braid was ruled not to have grounded the ball, and the USA had another shot.
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But yet another kick into in-goal. This time Danny Barrett was easily onto the ball and slid down to touch the ball down. But Barrett was ruled not to have ground the ball, and chasing in was Conor Trainor, and in a superbly heads-up play, he got to the ball just before it rolled dead. Try Canada, and unlucky for Barrett, who seemed sure he had grounded it.
Yet more errors for the USA. They had the ball but a knock-on turned it over to Canada - harsh in that the ball came off Test's hand and into Durutalo's, and yet Durutalo, who had no time to react, was called for fielding the ball in an offside position.
Some desperate defense held off the Canadians, but the Americans just couldn't get out of their 22. With less than a minute to go, Canada got a scrum in the USA 22 and Trainor just schooled the Eagle defense, which completely lost its shape trying to stop him.
That made it 12-5 at halftime, but Canada weren't done.
Mack orchestrated a move that connected with Nanyak Dala, Braid, and finally Harry Jones for a superb try.
That made it 19-5 and when the Eagles booted the ball away because they were unable to make any headway, Canada was only too happy to probe left, and send hands out right to Sean Duke for a try and a 24-5 lead.
Nick Edwards broke out of a couple of iffy Canada tackles to go in under the posts to pull the USA closer.
But the game ended with one more Canadian try, with Mike Scholz picking up after a long attack. During that sequence, newcomer Madison Hughes and still-young veteran Brett Thompson made some key tackles.
Thompson was the brightest spot in a poor performance by the USA, where simple things like passing in front of the runner, retaining the ball in contact, and running in support just aren't being done.
USA 12
Tries: Durutalo, Edwards
Convs: Suniula
Canada 29
Tries: Trainor 2, Jones, Duke, Scholz
Convs: Mack 2