Two first-half tries from David Fee propelled the United States to a 35-22 win over Chile in a Rugby World Cup qualifying match.
In a hard-hitting contest, the USA jumped to a 25-3 halftime lead and were never in danger of losing the first-ever rugby international between the American hemisphere countries, played before 2,075 fans on a 75-degree summer afternoon.
Local star Kimball Kjar and Philip Eloff added tries for the USA, while flyhalf Mike Hercus added 15 points goalkicking,. Nicolas Damm, Bernardo Garcia, and captain Alfonso Escobar scored the visitors' tries, the latter two in the game's dying stages.
With the win, the USA improved its World Cup qualifying tournament record to 1-2 while Chile fell to 1-1. In other World Cup qualifying action today, Calgary downed Uruguay 51-16 in Edmonton to move its record to 3-0. Uruguay dropped to 0-2.
Fee, in just his third match for the USA, opened the scoring at 15 minutes. Hard running by forwards Dan Dorsey and Phillippe Farner set up the winger's first international try. Hercus converted to give the hosts a 7-0 lead.
Following two penalty goals by Hercus and one from Chilean flyhalf Cristian Gonzalez, Fee's second try broke the match open at 36 minutes. Mose Timoteo's strong counterattack run opened up the Chilean defense for Fee to scamper 40 yards down the right sideline.
One minute before halftime, Utah native Kjar darted from the base on a ruck to run 40 yards untouched. Hercus' conversion made the count 25-3.
Chile's Damm scored a converted try 7 minutes after halftime to bring the visitors to within 15 points, but Hercus' third penalty goal and Eloff's converted try at 59 minutes put the game out of reach at 35-10.
With several American starters on the bench resting for Thursday's match with Uruguay in San Francisco, Chile's forward power came to fore in tries by Garcia and Escobar.
"Today was a good victory. It's great to see young guys like Kimball [Kjar] and David Fee taking their chances and scoring tries. But now we have to immediately focus on Uruguay," USA captain said after the match.
The Teams:
United States: 1 Dan Dorsey, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Mike MacDonald, 4 Philippe Farner, 5 Alec Parker, 6 Conrad Hodgson, 7 Dave Hodges (c), 8 Kort Schubert, 9 Kimball Kjar, 10 Mike Hercus, 11 Johnny Naqica, 12 Jason Keyter, 13 Phillip Eloff, 14 David Fee, 15 Mose Timoteo
Reserves: Chris Miller, Andy McGarry, Shaun Paga, John Tarpoff, Link Wilfley
Unused: Kevin Dalzell, Isaac Mbereko
Attendance: 2075
Referee: Cole a.
Points Scorers:
United States
Tries: Fee D. 2, Eloff P. 1, Kjar K. 1
Conv: Hercus M. 3
Pen K.: Hercus M. 3
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