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| HSAAs Needed Consistency |
| National Teams - Age-Grade Men |
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“[We] hurt ourselves with forced offloads,” added Thompson. “[But] this is exactly the type of game experience our boys need. We found ourselves in a fast-paced, physical game against an organized, efficient, international team. We wasted opportunities [we needed] to win a close game.” Still, of course, it wasn’t an implosion. Uruguay needed a second-half penalty goal to win the game. Perhaps more than anything else, Uruguay just did a good job of closing out the game. “They were effective in their tackling and running,” he said. “We were a lot stronger and more physical, but we lacked in knowledge and education in the game. Some of us have only played for a few years; they had a better understanding of the game.” Los Teritos did very well in keeping their attacks going – regaining their feet if not held in the tackle, or releasing and regaining possession. Now that the HSAA team knows what they are facing, Wednesday could be a different story. “What they have in skill, we make up in strength,” said Paogofie. “We know what we need to do to be successful and we will seize the new day.” Lock Joe Whalen agreed that the USA team played hard, but hard isn’t enough. “All of us played our hearts out, but we were too frantic in many stages of the game,” said the Gonzaga HS player. “We were forcing offloads that didn’t need to happen; we had miscommunications in open play that led to many knock-ons, and there were too many penalties. I think if we had played a little bit smarter like in the second game against Chile, and kept it simple, we could have come away with a win.” So lessons learned, and a two-point loss won’t be hard to overcome.
HS All Americans v Uruguay U19s July 21 2012 Pictures from the HSAA team against Uruguay U19s, won by Uruguay 17-15. These pictures were taken by RugbyNews Uruguay (www.rugbynews.com.uy)
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