One of those chickens came home to roost early in the second half as the ball was stripped away by Romania and the Oaks went on the offensive. McLean made a key try-saving tackle and while the Eagles were eventually called for offside, they would have preferred a penalty kick from Conache to a try.
Now down just five points, Romania came right back to threaten again. They received the restart and formed a maul in open play. Scrambling back to defend it the Eagles were in from the side—Maliu Niuafe was the guilty party and it was an unnecessary penalty as the USA players were getting back behind the back foot. Niuafe just needed to do that, too.
Romania took the lineout and got another penalty when Redelinghuys was called for taking out the jumper in the air. (Replay showed that never happened.) Redelinghuys ended up being yellow-carded for repeated offside.
The next maul collapsed the Referee Grove-White blamed the USA, but that was a 50-50 call. What was evident was that the USA was holding the drive and Romania weren’t really going anywhere. The maul could well have been called over much earlier.
One more maul from Romania and this time the Eagles stopped the drive cold. The Oaks were forced to bounce off the back and some excellenting tackling from Paddy Ryan at flanker and wing Mark O’Keefe forced a knock-on. The Eagles had survived and it was clear that the goalline stand meant something.
Taking the scrum the USA looked to run a couple of phases before exiting, but now it was Romania committing silly penalties. They were in from the side so the USA was able to clear and get the ball back. They worked through their shape from there, and a couple of very good kicks, one from de Haas and one from Carty, ensured they were playing in the right part of the field. After an attempted interception resulted in a knock-on, the Eagles were able to launch something from the middle of the field.
They ran a slick backline move with Fricker involved twice that got them into the Romania 22. Then the ball was shipped quickly left where Carty floated a long pass to McLean. The winger caught the ball, was caught himself, but wriggled out of contact to get over for the try.
It was a huge turnaround, from almost having the game tied to, with Carty’s well-taken conversion, being ahead 23-11.
They almost put it away moments later. A turnover led to Tavite Lopeti booting the ball downfield and McLean getting to the pill just as it rolled to the goalline. On first glance it seemed McLean knocked the ball backwards and sideways for Lopeti to charge in and pick up to score. But the TMO showed McLean had lost the ball forward. No spectacular try, but the ball was still in the Romanian end of the field and when the Oaks were penalized again
Carty slotted the goal to make it a three-score game at 26-11.
Romania pressed after that but they didn’t have enough time. The Eagles defended and defended, and stopped another maul. But they also committed a couple of penalties, finally ending the game with a scrum under the posts from which the Oaks scored the final try.
But time was up and the game was done. For the most part the USA had closed out the match rather than relying on a slim 16-11 lead.
Rankings-wise the Eagles are likely solid now at 16. They dropped from 15 last week after Uruguay’s win over Portugal vaulted Los Teros up three places. This win should get the USA closer to Uruguay for 15th, but Los Teros (who play a non-rankings game against a New Zealand XV this week) have one more game on the calendar, against Romania.
Chances are Uruguay wins that and keeps ahead of the USA. Meanwhile, #17 Samoa, even if they beat Belgium to take that final RWC qualification place, likely can’t catch the USA. So #16 it probably is.
USA 26
Tries: Daniel, McLean
Convs: de Haas, Carty
Pens: Carty 4
Romania 18
Tries: Manumua, Mitu
Convs: Conache
Pens: Conache 2