The USA Eagles ended a 16-year drought at the Rugby World Cup when they beat the ever-willing Japanese 39-26 at Gosford's Gold Coast Stadium.
It brought the curtain down on Japan's participation at the 2003 tournament, but the Eagles have an encounter with France, on Friday, to complete their involvement.
While the Eagles have plenty of reason to celebrate their win, the first since they beat Japan in their opening match (21-18) at the 1987 RWC in Brisbane, it is with a touch of sadness that the organisers will be saying "Sayonara" to the "Cherry Blossoms".
They have been thoroughly entertaining in all their matches with their helter-skelter style. Even though they failed to win any of them, they came pretty close to getting some just reward for providing the thousands of spectators and millions of television viewers with full value for their money.
The Japanese were never completely overwhelmed in any of their matches, despite not being able to match any of their opposition up front. And, as was the case before, the final scoreline -- 39-26 -- in Gosford does not reflect just how close they came to winning their first match since beating Zimbabwe in Belfast in 1991 -- which is their only RWC win to date.
But credit to the Eagles for the quality of rugby they produced, and as captain Dave Hodges said, it "felt great" to finally win again after so many years.
He lamented the fact that they almost allowed the Japanese to sneak a win, despite dominating possession and territory.
"We tried to get too fancy after a while," he said, reflecting on the fact that they had build up an early 14-0 lead before letting the "Cherry Blossoms" back into the game, "our tactics was to run hard at them all game."
Those tactics certainly paid dividends early in the game, when outside centre Phillip Eloff was particularly devastating.
In the first 10 minutes, the Japanese saw hardly any of the ball, with 80 percent of the possession stakes going to the Eagles, and the scraps the Japanese did see was poor and on the back foot.
Not surprising then that it took the Eagles just eight minutes to score their first try, when fly-half Mike Hercus sold the perfect dummy to dart over under the uprights. Four minutes later Eloff was rewarded for all his hard work with a brilliant outside break and some strong running.
But the Japanese settled down and "Cherry Blossoms" fly-half Andrew Miller showed he, too, has some skills and class when he created the opportunity for winger Toru Kurihara to go over.
The rest of the first half, on the scoreboard, was a kicking duel between Kurihara and Hercus and it allowed the Eagles to go into the break with a 20-10 lead.
The all-action, high-tempo approach from both teams continued after the break and it seemed that a change of jerseys would do the trick for the Japanese. In the first half red was the predominant colour for both teams, but after the break Japan came out in a blue-and-white strip.
Three Kurihara penalties saw the gap close to 20-19, before outstanding Eagles flanker Kort Schubert burst over for a try after a great half-break by Hercus.
But the Japanese bounced back again and an outstanding score by world-class winger Daisuke Ohata, after a counter-attack from turnover ball, saw the gap close to 27-26 with just 20 minutes remaining.
It was then a case of who would crack first and the two teams stayed at each other's throats at a furious pace, before the Eagles finally raced away in the final five minutes.
Winger Riaan van Zyl scored in the 75th minute, after a great break by lock Gerhard Klerck, and hooker Kirk Khasigian added the finishing touch with a try in the 80th minute.
Man of the match: The two Japanese wingers, Daisuke Ohata and Toru Kurihara, deserve special mention for their bravery -- not just on defence, but also for some fine attacking play, while Kurihara was his usual reliable self in the goal-kicking department. The two fly-halves, Andrew Miller (Japan) and Mike Hercus (USA), also had their moments, but our vote goes to the Eagles' South-African born centre Phillip Eloff, who kept punching holes in the brave Japanese defence for most of the game.
Moment of the match: The Eagles' five tries were all well-crafted and entraining touchdowns, but the moment that best depicts the game in its entirety was the try scored by Japanese winger Daisuke Ohata in the 58th minute. It came after the Eagles had lost control of the ball and the "Cherry Blossoms" launched a blistering counter-attack, with Ohata sprinting own the right wing to beat a couple of defenders on the outside, before stepping inside the cover defence to score.
Villain of the match: There were no incidents of note and no cards, but American coach Tom Billups must have agreed with our vote. He pulled fullback Paul Emerick off in the 44th minute, after the No.15 had a real shocker, which included a number of fumbles and some ordinary kicking.
The teams:
Japan: 1 Shin Hasegawa, 2 Masao Amino, 3 Masahiko Toyoyama, 4 Hajime Kiso, 5 Adam Parker, 6 Naoya Okubo, 7 Takuro Miuchi (c), 8 Takeomi Ito, 9 Yuji Sonoda, 10 Andy Miller, 11 Toru Kurihara, 12 Yukio Motoki, 13 George Konia, 14 Daisuke Ohata, 15 Tsutomu Matsuda
Reserves: Hirotoki Onozowa, Yuya Saito, Takashi Tsuji, Masahito Yamamoto
Unused: Koichi Kubo, Hideki Nanba, Masaaki Sakata
United States: 1 Dan Dorsey, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Mike MacDonald, 4 Gerhard Klerck, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Dave Hodges (c), 7 Kort Schubert, 8 Dan Lyle, 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Mike Hercus, 11 David Fee, 12 Phillip Eloff, 13 Salesi Sika, 14 Riaan Van Zyl, 15 Paul Emerick
Reserves: John Buchholz, Kimball Kjar, Jacob Waasdorp, Matt Wyatt
Unused: Jason Keyter, Olo Fifita, Jurie Gouws
Attendance: 19653
Referee: Walsh s.
Points Scorers:
Japan
Tries: Ohata D. 1, Kurihara T. 1
Conv: Kurihara T. 2
Pen K.: Kurihara T. 4
United States
Tries: Eloff P. 1, Van Zyl R. 1, Hercus M. 1, Khasigian K.A. 1, Schubert K.S. 1
Conv: Hercus M. 4
Pen K.: Hercus M. 2
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