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(Above, Todd Clever on his way to scoring his first try. Below, the scrum had a strong day vs. Los Teros. Will Ris photos.)
By Alex Goff
The USA men's national team have qualified for the 2011 World Cup.
They accomplished that task by defeating Uruguay 27-6 at Central Broward Rgional Park Saturday, capping off the two-game series between the two teams with a 54-28 aggregate score.
The Eagles won behind a huge forward effort that contested ball at every breakdown and simply didn't allow Uruguay to gather any offensive momentum. The USA pressure defense was outstanding and led to two tries.
All in all the Eagles score four tries: flanker Lou Stanfill, wing Kevin Swiryn and two second-half scores from flanker and captain Todd Clever. Mike Hercus added a penalty and a conversion and Nese Malifa also kicked a conversion.
Jeronimo Etcheverry accounted for all Uruguay's points with a penalty goal in each half.
The Eagles took a 3-0 lead one minute into the match when Uruguay were penalized off the kickoff and Hercus put the kick through the posts.
But it stayed that was for a good 18 minutes, and Uruguay used the wind and some patient attacking to work their way into the USA end. The Eagles weathered the storm, and eventually scored off Stanfill's try. The Eagle backs used Junior Sifa was a decoy runner, sending it out wide to Paul Emerick instead. Then they switched it up, using Emerick as the decoy and that led to an attacking run down the right side. From there the USA spun it left and Chris Wyles made a big run before being hauled down.
 Scrumhalf Tim Usasz called for quick ball and kept feeding his forwards to punch it in. Finally Stanfill surged onto a Usasz pass to score in the corner.
"I just dotted the i," said Stanfill, raising a stitched-up eyebrow. "There was a lot of good work done by a lot of the guys to set that up."
The USA's second try was pretty, as they attacked off lineout ball and unvailed a double-loop, inside-pass move that involved Hercus, Todd Clever and Takudzwa Ngwenya. That move got Uruguay on the back foot and then Swiryn found some space on the left side, grubbered ahead, ragethered, and took two tacklers over the line.
Uruguay got three back when Etcheverry hit a long-range penalty at the end of halftime. The teams went into the locker rooms with the USA up 13-3.
In the second half, Etcheverry capped off a long period of Uruguay pressure with a penalty kick eight minutes in to make it 13-6. But from there it was all USA. With the wind behind them the Eagles were content to kick and pressurize, and as a result didn't run too many backline plays. Pressure D led to the first try of the half, when the Eagles caught Uruguay behind the gainline, and Clever ripped the ball out of the loose maul and thundered 35 meters for the try. Hercus hit the conversion for the 20-6 lead.
Moments after that, all hope for a comeback was taken from Uruguay when referee David Smortchevsky red-carded prop Mario Sagario for foul play in the ruck. Down a man for the rest of the game, Uruguay was in trouble. And with the USA scrum holding up well, the Eagle pack started to have the upper hand once they were shoving seven players.
"We started to get on the wrong side of the referee after that, which was worrying," said USA head coach Eddie O'Sullivan. "We try very hard to be disciplined and stay away from penalties. Normally we do that but we had a stretch there where it was 7-1 against, and that made it tough for us."
But in the end the USA put the exclamation point on the game. Off a wheeling scrum, lock Alec Parker snagged the ball and started upfield. Parker found support just before he went into touch, and Mike Petri slipped the ball to the ever-present JJ Gagiano. The No.8, starting place of the injured Nic Johnson, fed Nese Malifa who sent a long pass out to Clever.
The flanker had moved to center after Kevin Swiryn had come off, and was happy to take on his role as a back. Clever dummied to Ngwenya and took it in for the clinching try. Jubilant, the USA captain flung the ball into the crowd.
We knew it was going to be over and we wanted to finish it," "I was rpoud of the guys and hopefully somebody got a souvenier. We came out with a goal and we acheived that goal. It's great knowing we've got a spot in the next World Cup."
The victory came on the backs for the USA forwards, who slowed Uruguayan ball superbly, scrummed far better than they were expected to, and won the battle of the gain line.
"Our scrum, there wasd a bit of pressure in Uruguay, and I thought there was parity there," said Smith, who had an outstanding game in all aspects. "Rugby's just a game of the gain line. We had the mentality to go into this. We had to be ruthless and get through the gain line with the ball and stop them from getting to the gain line, and we did that."
USA 27
Tries: Clever 2, Stanfill, Swiryn
Convs: Hercus, Malifa
Pens: Hercus
Uruguay 6
Pens: Etcheverry 2
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