USA defeated Israel in the third game of preliminary pool play by a score of 34-18. The Israel side, which is the country’s national team, had beaten Canada in the opening round but then fell to Great Britain in the second game by a tight 13-11 score. They now stand at 1-2, while the Americans are 3-0 and in first place in their group heading into the tournament semifinals. USA will play Great Britain while Israel will face South Africa in the other semi-final.

The game was nip and tuck for the first 60 minutes, with frequent mistakes preventing the USA from establishing any comfortable lead. In the first half, USA was unable to exploit its noteworth speed advantage in the backline, but the forwards made up the difference with an effective mauling game. Israel did an excellent job of maintaining possession and capitalizing on USA’s errors, but in the end, superior fitness helped USA down the stretch to punch in two tries in the final quarter to earn the win.

Israel opened the game with a penalty goal after USA committed an infraction on the first kickoff (0-3). USA answered back with several rucks in the attacking end. The USA pack then formed a driving maul led by prop Dan Gertzakov to push in the first USA try from 5 meters out, put down by winger John Sturman who had joined the maul. Scrumhalf Greg Van der Griff made the conversion (7-3). USA then drove in another try off a similar maul minutes later, put down by #8 Guy Dotan (12-3). Israel answered back, however, a penalty kick (12-6) and a try off sloppy USA play. From an Israeli lineout on the attacking 22, the USA stole the throw in but could not clean up the bouncing ball, allowing Israel’s wing to squibb the ball into the try zone and touch it down for the score in the corner (12-11). USA almost scored off a break by flyhalf Jeremy Nash, but the ball was knocked-on, and the American’s lead remained at 1 point going into the halftime break.

USA took control of the second half at the outset. USA attacked and drove a lineout from 20 meters which ended with Blatt touching down in the corner. Van der Griff slotted the tough conversion (19-11). On the next possession, USA lost the ball in the ruck at midfield, and Israel effectively countered and was awarded a penalty. The Israel maul after a 5-meter lineout was stalled, but USA was unable to thwart the third attempt at a punch-in (19-18). In the final 20 minutes, USA controlled all possession in the attacking end. After Van der Griff hit a penalty (22-18), the Americans finished the match with two tries to win going away. Lock Aaron Davis cleaned up a loose ball which got spun out to the backs with an overload and was finished by wing Aaron Manheimer. Van der Griff conversion (29-18). To finish the scoring, USA backs ran a skip play off a lineout which ended with a try in the corner when Sturman found space and turned the corner to finish. Sturman would earn Man of the Match honors for his two tries and solid play in tackles and counterattacks.

1. D. Gertzakov (R. Perle) 2. A. Blatt (D. Glattstein) 3. K. Schulman 4. J. Kaplan 5. A. Davis 6. B. Brown (J. Bakst) 7. A. Ellison 8. G. Dotan 9. G. Van der Giff (M. Fair) 10. J. Nash 11. A. Manheimer 12. A. Mayer 13. A. Lebowitz 14. J. Sturman (J. Drescher) 15. M. Mills