Japan finished their 1999 Epson Cup in style as Terunori Masuho scored three tries in the first half and Daisuke Ohata added two more to help Japan to a 47-31 win over the United States.
Japan completed the six-team, round-robin tournament with a 4-1 mark, losing only to Fiji. The US team, 2-1 like Fiji, still has away matches at Canada and Samoa.
The hosts, playing before 3,900 here Saturday in Hawaii's first international rugby match, trailed by 20 points before Brian Hightower and Tom Billups scored tries to pull within 37-31 with 12 minutes to play.
Keji Hirose's penalty goal and Ohata's try at the final whistle sealed the victory for Japan.
"Credit Japan. They outhustled us and deserved to win," US captain Dan Lyle said. "We never got going on defense and it showed."
The US Eagles took a 10-6 lead on Kevin Dalzell's 16th-minute try before Masuho's three tries within 16 minutes put the visitors ahead to stay, although Mark Scharrenberg's try closed the half-time gap to 27-17.
The Teams:
United States: 1 Ray Lehner, 2 Tom Billups, 3 George Sucher, 4 Philippe Farner, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Dave Hodges, 7 Richard Tardits, 8 Dan Lyle (c), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 David Niu, 11 Vaea Anitoni, 12 Juan Grobler, 13 Mark Scharrenberg, 14 Brian Hightower, 15 Kurt Shuman
Reserves: Kirk Khasigian, Bill LeClerc, Tini Saulala, Jason Walker, Mark Williams
Japan: 1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masahiro Kunda, 3 Naoto Nakamura, 4 Naoya Okubo, 5 Hiroyuki Tanuma, 6 Greg Smith, 7 Yasunori Watanabe, 8 Jamie Joseph, 9 Wataru Murata, 10 Keiji Hirose, 11 Terunori Masuho, 12 Andrew McCormick (c), 13 Yukio Motoki, 14 Daisuke Ohata, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves: Jyunji Hiratsuka, Takeomi Ito, Masaaki Sakata
Referee: Tonga e.
Points Scorers
United States
Tries: Billups T.W. 1, Dalzell K. 1, Hightower B. 1, Scharrenberg M.A. 1
Conv: Dalzell K. 2, Williams M.A. 2
Pen K.: Dalzell K. 1
Japan
Tries: Masuho T. 3, Ohata D. 2, Smith G. 1
Conv: Hirose K. 4
Pen K.: Hirose K. 3
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