Nate Ebner

With many of the core U20 players unavailable for the weekend match due to academic and personal commitments, the match at Tradewinds Park provided a valuable development opportunity for new additions to the team.

The game also gave the USA coaches a chance to test players in different positions as they work toward assembling the top 26 U20 athletes in the nation for the team’s bid in the 2008 World Junior Championships set to be held in Wales in June.

“When we go to Wales, we’re going to be playing 5 games in a 16-day period, so we need to focus on building our depth and switching players around to find the best fit,” US U20 head coach Salty Thompson said. “We’re going through the teething problems of trying to find the best chemistry right now. It’s a big challenge to find the players who are going to step up and make the big plays when faced with adversity.”

In the showcase match, the men from Carmarthen College were the first to get on the board with an early penalty kick, but the USA soon evened the score with a penalty kick off the boot of newcomer Nick Viviani to put the game at 3-3 by minute nine. Inside the 24th minute, the Welsh side ran in its only try and booted a drop goal 12 minutes later to go up 11-3.

The U20 Eagles made a comeback charge and pulled within one point following a try from Nate Ebner (Ohio State), who intercepted a poor Carmarthen pass to run in a try beneath the posts, and subsequent conversion from Viviani.

After being held scoreless for the majority of the second half, Carmarthen College capitalized on a penalty kick opportunity late in the match to fend off the USA team for a 14-10.

“In testing out athletes with limited experience playing together, we lacked cohesiveness today. We created our own problems at times and had a chance to win but let it slip by,” Thompson said. “We have a lot more to give to upgrading our overall team performance. In our next assembly, we will go back to some of the fundamentals and continue to improve from there.”

The U20s will next convene in Dallas at Easter to focus on upgrading skills as they build up to the World Juniors in June.

USA U20s:
1. Mike Shepherd (Brownsburg, Ind.), 2. Max Paganini (Purdue), 3. Ryan Fitcher (Arizona State Univ.), 4. Kevin Erskine (Tempe, Ariz.), 5. Teddy Barron (Harvard), 6. Matt Edison (Bury St. Edmonds, 7. Jamey Penca (FAU), 8. Garrett Lambert (Life Univ.), 9. Steven Sablan (Potomac Athletic Club), 10. Nick Viviani, 11. Zack Test (Univ. of Oregon), 12. Gareth Jones (Temple Univ.), 13. Nate Ebner (Ohio State), 14. Errol Allard (Belmont Shore), 15. Hamish Roberts (Texas A&M)