Chile to RWC2023, USA to repechage.

Having fallen to Uruguay and now Chile, the Eagles must navigate a round robin tournament in November against Kenya, Portugal and either Tonga or Hong Kong (so, likely Hong Kong).

This is unlikely to be what many observers thought a few months back, but that is where we find ourselves now. And it surely is not where we thought was going to be the case after thirty minutes of the second leg of the Chile series, with the Eagles 19 points clear at home. Or even midway through the second half with a twelve point lead.

Alex Goff has some thoughts on how we got here, and those can be found here:

https://www.goffrugbyreport.com/news/are-eagles-crisis

Discipline and fitness are obvious scapegoats. In control, up 19 points, the Eagles conceded a yellow card and gave up two tries to close out the first half which made it a game again. Is it harsh to say the Eagles seemed a little sluggish at times? Or maybe we shouldn’t be wearing dark shirts a 1PM in July.

Or are the defensive tactics appropriate?

In one telling sequence, Chile scored near the end of the first half despite being on the wrong end of a 5-3 personnel matchup.  Winger Christian Dyer bites inside to make the tackle on the ball carrier (who admittedly manages to get a sweet offload off to the supporting player), and Hanco Germishuys is forced to try to make the outside tackle, which he is unable to do. Full back Marcel Brache was out of position, as he had to assist in the previous breakdown to stop rampaging props, so the rear cover was stretched. See the sequence at the link below, starting about the 5.30 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ro0CF83FWc