Japan struck blow for us all: US

Japan’s stunning win will resonate powerfully across all developing rugby nations, US coach Mike Tolkin says.

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Brighton – Japan’s stunning win over SA at the weekend will resonate powerfully across all developing rugby nations, says US coach Mike Tolkin, whose side has still to face both teams in Pool B of the World Cup.

“It was a fantastic win, a historic win for them and for our circles. We play Japan quite a bit, at least once a year, and they are always tight battles. It shows that teams are on the rise at our level of play.

“It’s great for the game overall, I think it’s fantastic for the fans, for the sport,” he added.

“Hopefully we can be winning against Scotland in our next game,” Tolkin said, optimistically claiming the US still had every chance of still reaching a first-ever World Cup quarter-final despite a 25-16 loss to Samoa in their opening Pool B game on Sunday.

“It’s one game at a time in this tournament and there were moments where we were outstanding. We put ourselves in positions to win the game or drive it down to the wire. We need to capitalise on those moments.

“Against Scotland we are not going to get the penalty count we had against us. Our scrum held up well but the lineout, which has been a strength of ours for the last couple of years, was not working as efficiently. So we want to get that straightened out.

“We need a little more continuity to our game. We had good opportunities to get some nice line breaks, especially in the second half, but we weren’t playing off those and we so we want to do that better.”

The U.S. meet Scotland in Leeds on Sunday.

– REUTERS