GLENDALE, Colo. – The North America 4 consolation match between the USA Hawks and their cross-border counterparts Canada East met a frustrating end, as the U.S. caught a last minute scoring break to bring a 17-17 final draw on Saturday night at Glendale’s Infinity Park.

“At the beginning of the match I asked them to play physical as a team but most importantly, as individuals. However, the didn’t apply themselves and instead backed away,” said USA Hawks Head Coach Marty Wiggins, singling out the top notch efforts of lock John Van der Giessen and USA Rugby All-American Hayden Smith, who turned in an impressive performance despite just having returned from the recent New Zealand tour.

In a fairly even start, each team maintained its fair share of possession, with neither catching a scoring break until more than 20 minutes in when the USA Hawks went up 3-0 off a penalty kick from Mark Roberts.

Despite a handful of missed opportunities and fumbled passes, the Hawks defense held up impressively, holding the Canadians from scoring even when a grubber kick pushed East within range of the try zone inside minute 29.

Two minutes later, the USA would grow its lead by another seven points when winger Brendan Brown picked off a pass from Canada No.  8 Aaron Carpenter and bolted more than 50 meters to touch in the Hawk’s first try on the day. Roberts again proved successful with the conversion to make it 10-0.

Inside minute 33 however, No. 8 Carpenter found redemption with Canada’s first try of the game and Steven Piatek’s accurate boot brought the East back into it 10-7.

Before switching sides, Canada’s Tyler Wish would journey back into the try zone and the Piatek conversion put the score up to 14-10 at 37 minutes, where it would remain heading into the half.

After the break, the Hawks emerged from the locker rooms with a strong team effort, putting up a stiff fight to hold the game scoreless until the 55th minute when Canada capitalized on a penalty kick opportunity, with Piatek effortlessly booting one home to surge the East further ahead to 17-10.

As the game pressed on, neither side could muster quite enough to touch the ball to its end, resulting in a second half scoreless spell that lasted until minute 78 when local favorite Pat Quinn took one in for a somewhat disputed try, with Mark Roberts notching the extras to tie it up with no time left, leaving the scoreline stuck at 17-17 at the final blow.

“The boys were fabulous tonight, they didn’t deserve to lose and drew the short end of the stick in the last play. To give credit to the Hawks, they kept going and going and put themselves in position to score the last try,” said Canada East Head Coach Simon Blanks, who was a bit disappointed in the ruling near the end. “They deserved the try but not the way they got it.”

“In this year’ tournament, the USA Hawks were the only team that have beaten the East by more than one try – for them to come back and for us to hold them to 17 all, was a great way to end it. I was delighted with the way they came back into this game.”

For more information on the North America 4 Tournament, visit www.narugby.com or www.usarugby.org

USA 17
15. Mark Roberts, 14. Brendan Brown, 13. Keiki Misipeka, 12. Hanno Dirksen, 11. Justin Boyd, 10. Chad Erskine, 9. Mike Petri ©, 1. Jon Vitale, 2. Phil Abraham, 3. Brian Lemay, 4. Hayden Smith, 5. John Van der Giessen, 6. Nic Johnson, 7. Jason Lett, 8. Pat Quinn
Reserves:
16. Brian Olmes (repl. Vitale @ 24 min –blood, 62 min), 17. Phil Thiel (repl Vitale @ 40 min – blood)18. Brian Doyle (repl. Smith @ 50 min), 19. Mark Aylor (repl. Johnson @ 53 min), 20. Owen Collins (repl. Misipeka @62), 21. Justin Hundley (repl. Boyd @67 min), 22. Travis Meidinger (repl. Doyle @ 59 min)
Tries: Brown, Quinn
Conversions: Roberts – 2
PKs: Roberts
Game day attendance: 1,172

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