GLENDALE — Peter Short — who at 6-feet-5 is anything but — has received the full Colorado experience. In the two weeks he and his England Saxons rugby club have been in town, he has ridden the rapids of the Arkansas River, come short of breath more quickly than usual and experienced near-daily tornado warnings.
After the Saxons met the USA Eagles in pool play at Sunday’s Churchill Cup, in fact, warning sirens sounded across the black sky over Infinity Park. But the Saxons, not the weather, were the ones who blew away the U.S. national team 56-17.
Rugby was invented in England, and the Americans got another rough lesson from the Saxons in what it takes to play with the elite. The Eagles gave Short’s side a game for a while, taking an early 7-3 lead, but the more-experienced Saxons started to dominate in all phases, especially in the scrums.
“We know that the USA are getting stronger each year, and we knew we’d have to work,” said Short, who plays the position of lock for the Saxons and for his professional team in Bath, Eng- land. “I think our set piece probably showed a bit today, in making the difference. The Americans have got some big lads, but our guys have been playing together since we were 8 years old, probably. The Australians have a similar problem: They don’t scrummage live until after (age) 19, I don’t think. It’s those sort of fundamental skills that you learn at a younger age and able to bring further. We were pretty happy today with the way our scrum went and able to assert our dominance there.”
The Saxons — considered Eng- land’s developmental national side — move on to next weekend’s final round at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park against Ireland A, which beat Georgia 42-5. The Saxons got tries from seven players, and 21 points from man of the match Stephen Myler, a fly-half.
One of the big plays of the match was when USA winger Alipate Tuilevuka’s kick was blocked, and the Saxons recovered at the Eagles’ end line. Nick Kennedy pounced on the loose ball for a try and an 8-7 Saxons lead.
“You make mistakes against them, you get punished,” U.S. coach Eddie O’Sullivan said. “England got some good tries, but what killed us in the game was that we coughed up four tries on turnovers. We needed to stay competitive with England until the final quarter and then see what happened. But when we got to the final quarter, the game was dead.”
Said Eagles flanker Todd Clever: “We got shown we’re not there yet. We’ve got to buckle down and get much better. A couple throws and a couple lifts were a bit off. And we definitely have to hit the scrum machine and get our technique right, because it’s unacceptable to have our own ball and turn it over that many times.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
