LONDON - The Men's Eagles Sevens defeated South Africa in their final pool match at Marriott London Sevens Saturday to finish day one atop Pool D with a perfect, 3-0 record.
Mike Friday's team will face Canada in the Cup Quarterfinals at Twickenham Stadium Sunday at 6:12 a.m. ET, the U.S.'s sixth Cup Quarterfinal of the nine-stop, 2014-15 World Rugby HSBC Sevens World Series.
With both teams qualified for the Cup Quarterfinals with two wins from two matches, the U.S. and South Africa met with seeding on the line. The pool-topper would play the No. 2 team in Pool A, either Canada or Fiji, with Fiji seeking maximum points to stay ahead of South Africa in the Series standings.
Baker proved who the fastest man on the pitch was in the second minute of the match when he chased down Seabelo Senatla to make the tackle before the Series-leading try-scorer could reach the try line. The Eagles were penalized after a lineout in their own half and conceded the opening try to Stephan Dippenaar to fall behind at 5-0.
Baker stopped another scoring opportunity for South Africa, but his opponent got the ball back from a lineout and Werner Kock dotted down to extend South Africa's lead to 12-0.
Though the Eagles did not find the try zone in the first seven minutes, they were able to take an advantage into the second half with Kyle Brown shown a yellow card for an infraction in the breakdown with Hughes.
A set play on the quick tap in the eighth minute created space for Unufe to exploit before the Eagles moved it to the right to Barrett. In the tackle, Barrett got an offload out to Bender for the team's first try.
On the other side of the restart, Hughes won the ball back for the Eagles and Baker ran nearly the length of the pitch again to give the Eagles a 14-12 lead as Brown's sinning expired.
Bender cut out a scoring opportunity by chasing a chip kick in-goal, where Dippenaar was deemed to have knocked the ball forward. A minute later, Durutalo won the ball for the Eagles and Isles grabbed the ball from a ruck five meters from the try line to dot down and bring the final score to 21-12.
The win sets up a Cup Quarterfinal matchup with Canada, which is scheduled to kick off at 6:12 a.m. ET Sunday. Watch Marriott London Sevens live on Universal Sports and follow match updates on Twitter with @USARugby.
