The USA Eagles recorded a 69-27 win over Japan at the Matthew J Boxer Stadium in Balbao, San Francisco, opening their Super Powers Cup campaign in the best way possible.
With the half-time score at 17-all, the home team opened the floodgates in the second period, outscoring the visitors by 62-10, thanks to eight second-half tries, with the USA scoring just two tries in the second stanza.
USA inside centre Kain Cross scored a hat-trick of tries on the day, while South African-born left wing Riaan Van Zyl and fullback Link Wilfley weighed in with a brace of tries each.
Fly-half Mike Hercus converted seven of his team's 11 tries for a points-haul of 14.
Japan scored just four tries, with wing Daisuke Ohata opening his side's account with a well-taken try within the first 10 minutes, taking his tally to 27 tries in only 27 appearances.
The "Cherry Blossoms" found themselves ahead by 17-5 at one stage in the first half, after a try from Japan's fly-half Soshi Fuchigami, but tries from Cross and Van Zyl saw the teams go into half-time on level terms.
This will be the USA's last home match of 2003 and clearly the World Cup in Australia is very much in mind after the USA's strong performances in beating Spain in répechage.
Next month the USA plays Canada and England in the Churchill Cup, both matches in Vancouver. In July the Eagles play the USA in a Superpowers Cup match. In August it takes part in the Pan-American Championship in Buenos Aires, along with Argentina, Canada and Uruguay.
Japan have played this year against Sri Lanka and the Arabian Gulf, both matches producing big victories. In addition they have spent time acclimatising in Australia where they beat Queensland "A" before losing to them, the Brumby Runners and Sydney.
The Eagles and Japan find themselves in Pool B -- alongside France, Scotland and Fiji -- at the Rugby World Cup later this year, with the teams set to meet in Gosford on Monday, October 27.
The Teams:
Japan: 1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masaaki Sakata, 3 Masahiko Toyoyama, 4 Kouichi Kubo, 5 Adam Parker, 6 Naoya Okubo, 7 Takuro Miuchi (c), 8 Takeomi Ito, 9 Wataru Murata, 10 Soshi Fuchigami, 11 Daisuke Ohata, 12 Hideki Namaba, 13 George Konia, 14 Yohei Shinomiya, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves: Lautangi Vatuvei, Toru Kurihara, Yuji Sonoda
Unused: Masao Amino, Yasunori Watanabe, Masato Yamamoto, Reuben Parkinson
United States: 1 Dan Dorsey, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Mike MacDonald, 4 Luke Gross, 5 Dave Hodges (c), 6 Conrad Hodgson, 7 Kort Schubert, 8 Dan Lyle, 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Mike Hercus, 11 David Fee, 12 Kain Cross, 13 Phillip Eloff, 14 Riaan Van Zyl, 15 Link Wilfley
Reserves: Mark Griffin, Tasi Mo'unga, Cayo Nicolau, Shaun Paga, Mose Timoteo, Jacob Waasdorp
Unused: Kimball Kjar
Attendance: 1852
Referee: Kuklinski b.
Points Scorers
Japan
Tries: Fuchigami S. 1, Ohata D. 1, Shinomiya Y. 1, Konia G.N. 1
Conv: Fuchigami S. 2
Pen K.: Fuchigami S. 1
United States
Tries: Cross K. 3, Fee D.W. 1, Mo'unga F. 1, Nicolau C. 1, Timoteo M.A. 1, Wilfley L.M. 2, Van Zyl R. 2
Conv: Hercus M. 7
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