Marcel Brache and Joe Taufete’e both grabbed braces as the USA hammered Russia 63-13 in Colorado on Saturday.
The hosts scored nine tries in a dominant performance to get their fifth consecutive win against the Russians, who struggled to maintain their intensity in the second half of the match.
It was the visitors who took an early lead through a try from wing Mikhail Babaev and a penalty from flyhalf Yuri Kushnarev, but the USA recomposed themselves and responded with tries from Brache, Taufete’e, flank John Quill and centre Paul Lasike to put the hosts 34-13 up at half-time.
It was more of the same in the second half as Brache dotted down for his second before some agile running allowed substitute Nate Augspurger to cross for a breakaway try.
No 8 Cam Dolan then exploited a gap on the left wing to score, with captain Blaine Scully also dotting down in the 80th minute.
USA – Tries: Marcel Brache (2), Joe Taufete’e (2), John Quill, Paul Lasike, Nate Augspurger, Cam Dolan, Blaine Scully. Conversions: AJ McGinty (4), Will Magie (3). Penalty: McGinty.
Russia – Try: Mikhail Babaev. Conversion: Lurii Kushnarev. Penalties: Kushnarev (2).
USA – 15 Will Hooley, 14 Blaine Sculley (c), 13 Bryce Campbell, 12 Paul Lasike, 11 Marcel Brache, 10 AJ McGinty, 9 Shaun Davies, 8 Cam Dolan, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 6 John Quill, 5 Nick Civetta, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Paul Mullen, 2 Joe Taufete’e, 1 Eric Fry.
Subs: 16 James Hilterbrand, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 Chris Baumann, 19 Greg Peterson, 20 Ben Laundry, 21 Nate Augspurger, 22 Will Magie, 23 Dylan Audsley.
Russia – 15 Vasily Artemyev, 14 Mikhail Babaev, 13 Dmitry Gerasimov, 12 Sergey Trishin, 11 Alexey Mikhaltsov, 10 Yuri Kushnarev, 9 Konstantin Uzunov, 8 Anton Rudoy, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Nikita Vavilin, 5 Evgeny Elgin, 4 Bogdan Fedotko, 3 Evgeny Pronenko, 2 Stanislav Selskiy, 1 Valery Morozov.
Subs: 16 Yevgeny Matveyev, 17 Sergey Sekisov, 18 Anton Drozdov, 19 Andrei Garbuzov, 20 Dmitry Krotov, 21 Vasily Dorofeev, 22 Cyril Golosnitsky, 23 Alexander Budychenko.
Photo: Al Miligan / KLC Fotos
