US hopeful despite World Cup setback

American hopes of qualifying for the 2003 World Cup suffered a massive dent when they were beaten 10-9 by Uruguay at a windswept River Plate Stadium in Montevideo. The winner of next week's Uruguay-Chile game will go through in second place behind Canada, while the US will go into a special repêchage play-off series. In Santiago, Canada beat Chile 29-11 to improve their record to 5-1 and clinch first place in the Americas group.

"The scoreline reflects how difficult it was for both teams to play rugby," the US coach, Tom Billups, said. "But I want to hand it to our forwards, we were dramatically better [than in the 21-13 loss to Chile] and went toe-to-toe with Uruguay on their home ground."

Uruguay scored first, benefiting from a dubious penalty try called by the referee, Peter Marshall, converted by Juan Menchaca. Mike Hercus struck back with three penalty goals, while Diego Aguirre claimed the decisive penalty goal on 67 minutes.

"We held Uruguay to 10 points a week after Canada shipped 25 in losing here. They got nothing out of their rolling maul and we leave South America with our honour intact," Billups said.

But the coach believes his side still have a great chance of qualifying for the World Cup. "I told the boys that we were going to find a way to Australia, and it looks like we're going to get our chance," he concluded.

Canada followed Fiji, Samoa and Japan as only the fourth team to emerge from the qualifiers. As the regional group winners, Canada will join New Zealand, Wales and two other qualifiers still to be determined in Pool D at next year's World Cup.