Junior All-Americans Close Out Pool Play With Record Loss

The Junior All-Americans finished pool play at the Junior World Championship in the worst way possible, breaking their own record for worst defeat in the competition with a 109-0 loss to England. The numbers throughout pool play tell the story: three points for, 252 against. The Junior All-Americans didn't manage a single try throughout pool play while giving up 39.

The loss to England was expected, but with the knock-out round next the U.S. needed to ensure they improved on certain aspects of their game to have a chance at staying in the competition when they face the other bottom finishers, likely Fiji, Samoa, and Scotland. Defense was once again a major issue as England faced no challenge in running their lines and then slipping tackles in the backfield. Against a quick team like Fiji the U.S. will be in trouble. The failure to score a try is also worrying. Simply having the experience of dotting down would give the team confidence.

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Things started off very poorly for the All-Americans. Henry Purdy scored England's first try less than a minute into the match. By 11 minutes England were already up 17-0 and by halftime held a 48-0 lead.  In the first half the U.S. had only one spell of good possession after England committed a penalty allowing Conor Kearn to kick deep for a lineout. The lineout went well and the Americans found themselves on the front foot, but after the few phases of being unable to punch the ball in they knocked it on to allow England to clear.

The second half was a similar disaster for the All-Americans. England once again scored early in the half and they continued to run in scores after that.  The best American spell of the match came with the score already at 109-0. The U.S. put together some decent phases but again knocked the ball on.

There are plenty of reasons why the All-Americans have struggled so far at the tournament--they graduated some strong players, colleges don't prep players well for international play, etc.--but when it comes down to it, the three matches so far at the tournament have been extremely disappointing. The U.S. now knows that they need to take a massive step up if they are ever going to compete at this level, but with this performance, questions will inevitably arise whether they can make that jump.

The team will next play on Tuesday where they will take on the 9th place overall team. Win that match and they stay in the JWC. Lose and they will have to play the winner of the other relegation semi-final to see if they can stay up.