The USA Eagles beat Canada by 16-11 in an ill-tempered Churchill Cup clash in Vancouver, to claim only their third win in 20 matches on Canadian soil and their first win over their higher ranked North American rivals in three years.
The Eagles had Link Wilfley to thank with 11 points coming off his boot, the USA fullback kicking three penalties and a conversion of centre Phil Eloff's try in a game which saw five yellow cards, three for Canada and two for the USA as well as a late, disallowed Canadian try from referee Roy Maybank.
Canada were first out of the blocks when fullback Quentin Fyffe rounded off a neat backline movement to score his first Test try after just four minutes but fly-half Bob Ross was unable to convert.
The veteran Canadian fly-half did, however, manage a penalty just before half-time to send the home side into the break 8-3 in the lead but Wilfley narrowed the deficit to just two points soon after the break.
The USA then took the lead on 64 minutes thanks to Eloff's try and although Canada pulled a penalty back and pressed hard late on, it was the staunch defence of the Eagles which prevented the Canadians from driving over in the last few minutes when their lock James Cudmore was judged to have been held up at the try-line.
Eagles coach Tom Billups was ecstatic with his team's performance, saying: "We studied hard and prepared well as a team, and it showed."
The win will also ring well with the USA's decision to continue with Billups as head coach of the Eagles for the next two years.
The teams:
Canada: 1 Garth Cooke, 2 Mark Lawson, 3 Kevin Tkachuk, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 5 Colin Yukes, 6 Ryan Banks (c), 7 Adam Van Staveren, 8 Phil Murphy, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Bobby Ross, 11 Sean Fauth, 12 Marco Di Girolomo, 13 Nik Witkowski, 14 Winston Stanley, 15 Quentin Fyffe
Reserves: Aaron Abrams, John Cannon, Kevin Wirachowski
Unused: Leif Carlson, Ed Fairhurst, Ed Knaggs
United States: 1 Dan Dorsey, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Mike MacDonald, 4 Dave Hodges (c), 5 Alec Parker, 6 Conrad Hodgson, 7 lanker Kort Schubert, 8 Dan Lyle, 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Cayo Nicolau, 11 David Fee, 12 Kain Cross, 13 Phillip Eloff, 14 Riaan Van Zyl, 15 Link Wilfley
Reserves: Jason Keyter, Luke Gross, John Tarpoff
Unused: Mark Griffin, John Buchholz, Kimball Kjar, Mose Timoteo
Attendance: 3200
Referee: Maybank r.
Points Scorers:
Canada
Tries: Fyffe Q. 1
Pen K.: Ross R.P. 2
United States
Tries: Eloff P. 1
Conv: Wilfley L.M. 1
Pen K.: Wilfley L.M. 3
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