The USA Eagles celebrated America's 4th July holiday with a hard-fought 12-6 victory over fierce rivals Canada at the Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina, to take a six-point lead into the second leg of their home-and-away Rugby World Cup qualifying play-off tie.
The winner over two legs, the second of which will be played in Edmonton, Canada on 11 July, will claim the Americas 1 spot in Pool A of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand to face the host nation as well as France, Tonga and the top Asian qualifier.
The loser moves on to face Uruguay, the winner of the South American qualification phase, in a two-match series to determine the Americas 2 qualifier in Pool C against Australia, Ireland, Italy and the Europe 2 qualifier.
USA remain 18th in the world and Canada 13th, although the Eagles are now only 0.25 rating points away from Georgia in 17th.
In Oceania, Papua New Guinea overcame the Cook Islands in Port Moresby 29-21 to win the Oceania Cup and reach the region's qualifying final.
The result also brought about the week's only change to the IRB World Rankings. PNG move up three places in the world list to 49th, while the Cook Islands fall one place to 54th.
The PNG side now faces a daunting two-match series against relative heavyweights Samoa, who finished outside the top three in their 2007 World Cup pool meaning they had to qualify for the 2011 event.
USA 12-6 Canada
Veteran USA fly half Mike Hercus kicked all of the USA's as the Eagles ground out a first win against Canada since 2005.
Hercus kicked one drop goal and three penalty goals in the sweltering South Carolina heat in front of a patriotic home crowd.
"The forwards played exceptionally well. They built the platform for Hercus and he executed. Canada is always a very tough competitor and this was a hard fought match. But I thought these boys deserved this victory," said USA coach Eddie O'Sullivan.
"We missed a couple of opportunities, but a win is a win and I'm really happy we could get the job done at home. Now we just need to repeat it next week."
Hercus was named man of the match, but remained modest about his own performance.
"I just happen to be the kicker, the forwards did all the hard work. It was a tough game and they played very well.
"We only had five guys on the team, including myself, who had ever beaten Canada before and of course this is our biggest game of the year. This is about as good as it gets," said Hercus, who was joined by Mike MacDonald, Todd Clever, Salesi Sika and Paul Emerick on the team that dealt Canada a 20-19 defeat in the 2005 Churchill Cup tournament.
Canada coach Kieran Crowley tipped his hat to the USA's effort and knows that his side will have to perform a lot better next weekend to avoid the play-off withUruguay.
"They just out-passioned us and they deserved the win," said Crowley after the match. "That's what this series is about and today we just weren't good enough.
"They got good go-forward ball and our ball was slow. In the first half we got sucked into their game a little bit and the pressure just kept on."
Scorers and squads
USA
Penalty Kicks - Hercus (3)
Drop Goals - Hercus
15. Chris Wyles, 14. Takudzwa Ngwenya 13. Paul Emerick, 12. Roland Suniula (repl by Tuilevuka at 66 min), 11. Kevin Swiryn 10. Mike Hercus,
9. Tim Usasz (repl by Petri at 66:50), 1. Mate Moeakiola (repl. by MacDonald at at 50:14, ret. at 67:07), 2. Chris Biller, 3. Shawn Pittman, 4. John Van der Giessen, 5. Hayden Smith (repl. By Parker at 59:14), 6. Louis Stanfill, 7. Todd Clever Captain,
8. Nic Johnson (repl by Gagiano at 53:05)
Canada
Penalty Kicks - Pritchard (2)
15. James Pritchard (Bedford RFC) , 14. Matt Evans (Hartpury College),
13. DTH van der Merwe (Glasgow Warriors), 12. Ryan Smith (Calgary Irish), 11. Justin Mensah-Coker (Moseley), 10. Ander Monro (Colorno, Italy), 9. Ed Fairhurst (Cornish Pirates), 1. Kevin Tkachuk (Glasgow Warriors)2. Pat Riordan (University of Victoria), 3. Dan Pletch (Niagara Thunder), 4. Mike Burak (Unattached), 5. Tyler Hotson (UBC Old Boy Ravens), 6. Jebb Sinclair (Castaway Wanderers), 7. Adam Kleeberger (University of Victoria), 8. Aaron Carpenter (Coventry RFC) Replacements - 16. Mike Pletch,17. Andrew Tiedemann (University of Victoria), 18. Frank Walsh (Vandals RFC), 19. Stu Ault (Mosely RFC), 20. Nanyak Dala
Referee: Alan Lewis (IRFU)
Attendance: 3,836
