Good to see the Eagles soaring again

THAT’S a wrap for the autumn Tests and it would be remiss not to scroll through the undercard and round up the best of the action outside of the A list matches. A quick crib sheet for those not paying attention at the back.

- BRENDAN GALLAGHER

First and foremost it was encouraging to see the US Eagles soaring again. We haven’t always been kind to the Eagles on these pages feeling the decision to let them host RWC2031 was unearned compared with others and ridiculously premature.

They then went and lost to Portugal in the repechage play-off for the final place at RWC2023 and it was hard to think their game could sink much lower. Gary Gold departed as head coach and the unheralded Scott Lawrence took over while AJ MacGinty was installed as skipper.

From that nadir though the Eagles have picked themselves up and rallied superbly and hats must be tipped in their direction. Over the last month they have steadied the ship impressively and won all three matches in Europe en route to climbing to 15th in the World Rugby rankings, ahead of six of the teams that participated at the finals of RWC2023.