EOYT: Romania vs United States, 24/11/2012

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Stadionul Naţional de Rugby, Bucharest (24-11-2012, 13:00 GMT)
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Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Assistant referees: TBD
Television match official: TBD
​

 

[BZHopenside]

Wyles will be back in the squad, and hopefully Ngwenya will figure out the "visa troubles" and join as well.

 

[dragos03]

The USA team has arrived in Bucharest on Sunday evening and has already trained on the Arcul de Triumf stadium today.

 

[dragos03]

Teams have been announced:

Romania:
1. Petru Tamba,
2. Otar Turashvili,
3. Mihaita Lazar,
4. Cosmin Ratiu,
5. Alin Coste,
6. Vasile Rus,
7. Mihai Macovei (C),
8. Ovidiu Tonita,
9. Florin Surugiu,
10. Andrei Filip,
11. Ionut Botezatu,
12. Csaba Gal,
13. Ionel Cazan,
14. Madalin Lemnaru,
15. Catalin Fercu.

Subs: 16. Andrei Radoi, 17. Horatiu Pungea, 18. Vlad Badalicescu, 19. Alexandru Manta, 20. Viorel Lucaci, 21. Grigoras Diaconescu, 22. Ionut Florea, 23. Constantin Gheara.

USA:
1. Shawn Pittman,
2. Chris Biller,
3. Eric Fry,
4. Scott Lavalla,
5. Louis Stanfill,
6. John Quill,
7. Peter Dahl,
8. Todd Clever (C),
9. Mike Petri,
10. Toby L'Estrange,
11. Luke Hume,
12. Andrew Suniula,
13. Paul Emerick,
14. Takudzwa Ngwenya,
15. Chris Wyles.

Subs: 16. Derek Asbun, 17. Nick Wallace, 18. Zachary Fenoglio, 19. Graham Harriman, 20. Inaki Basauri, 21. Robbie Shaw, 22. Roland Suniula, 23. Zachary Pangelinan.

 

[dragos03]

USA team celebrating Thanksgiving

Coaches and captains

And here is the press conference, if anyone is interested:
http://www.rugbytv.ro/2012/11/22/conferinta-de-presa-romania-sua-22-11-2012.html

 

[Dougydeluxe]

turkey coma before a game.... great move

 

[dudeabides]

Can't wait to see this, the lineup the should have had the whole tour minus Manoa imo.

 

[racer0bv]

we have some nice additions also, with "french" internationals Lazar, Tonita and Coste. So we should have a better game vs the one with Japan 2 weeks ago.

 

[dragos03]

Coste played against Japan, so the only additions are Lazar and Tonita. On the other hand, we lost both our best locks (Valentin Ursache and Marius Sarbe) from the Japan game. I also hope we will play better, but our squad is still very depleted, while the USA will field their strongest lineup of this autumn tour.

 

[racer0bv]

yeah, you're right, i forgot he was no 18.

Anyway the changes are in the pack, which was the better part from the game with Japan. The backs need to step up their game if we want to get a win with the US.

 

[LittleGuy]

US are dominating at the moment 34 consecutive points to take a 34-3 lead over Romania.

Edit: Thats your final, reminded me a lot of last week's Canada vs. Russia game. Wyles had a great game for the States.

 

[BZHopenside]

Nice to see us keeping the pressure up for the whole game.

Next summer's RWC playoff should be interesting. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that US and Canada will split the games, and it will come down to points differential.

 

[usausa]

Didn't get to see the whole game, and the stream wasn't quite good at home for me either. But it is encouraging to see the team able to keep the pressure up until the final whistle. Team still tries to make too many offloads that are 50/50 or less, and as a result we saw the US attack get sloppy at times and even turned it over. Defense was solid.

To me, it seemed like (in the first half when it was close) that Romania were intent on running the ball out, and did not want to kick to touch and give the ball back to the US. This leads me to my talk about the lineout. The USA have one the world's best lineouts: they not only basically retain all of their own throws with ease but they wreak havoc on their opponents. We saw Russia and Tonga not want to go anywhere near a lineout they respect it so much. Kicking to touch gives possession right back, and a lot of these Tier 2 nations don't have enough to defend our backline.

The backline today was superb, and that's good given that it is our strongest backline we could make on tour. I'm interested to see if Tolkin will find a way to fit James Paterson somewhere next summer, maybe Chris Wyles or him at center in place of Andrew Suniula. Andrew has improved as the tour has gone on no doubt but James is a better player. Our back 3 of Hume, Wyles, Ngwenya is arguably Tier 1 worthy and with the addition of Hume (completed 3 yr residency requirement) it no doubt is discouraging to teams wanting to kick away.
Petri was solid, Toby did what he had to today. Lots of missed passes but I rather us be adventurous and take chances. Everyone hated the Eddie O'Sullivan era where backs had minimal involvement in the attack. Our backs are the strength of the squad, and they must be utilized!

That being said, our forward still have a lot of work to do. We have Clever who is our best guy, followed by LaValla and Stanfill who always seem to be steady and consistent. It scares me (and tons of other Eagles fans) that we do not have any cover for the front row except for maybe Mike MacDonald when he returns. And lock depth isn't there either. Doyle is hurt, Stanfill and LaValla are better backrowers. Graham Harriman got on today, but Tolkin doesn't seem like he wants to experiment in test matches. John Quill has had bright spots this month after questionable ARC but Cam Dolan would've been the guy had he not gotten hurt. Question is, has Quill done enough to secure the starting spot for right now over Dolan or injured Taylor Mokate or Andrew Duratalo? While impressive, I think the #7 shirt is still open. If Mokate is healthy, I'd look to see Tolkin try him (or Dolan) at #8 and move Clever back to #7.

As a USA fan, I'm really excited for the RWC Qualifying matches next summer, and if we can play Canada away like we did this year with a similar scoreline, I expect the USA to really have a legitimate shot at winning the series. Away leg has always been the issue. We won the home leg last RWC Qualifying but laid an egg in Canada.

 

[BZHopenside]

Hopefully Samu Manoa gets his **** together and comes to play lock.