Samoa beat the USA Eagles, 25-16, Sunday but Steamboat Springs Rugby Club member Chris Baumann brought his best to power over for a close range try to give the U.S. a sniff of victory with just minutes on the clock.

On a beautiful sunny English day in Brighton, in front of 30,000 fans, the USA Eagles almost pulled away from the Pacific islanders in a hotly contested round one clash. A couple of missed kicks and some interesting penalty calls made it a difficult outing for the Eagles.

However, the question must be raised — why were Baumann and his front row partner Kalifi not bought on earlier with fresh legs and high energy the tonic required to lift the Eagles?

This loss makes the pool a difficult beast for the Eagles with Japan’s stunning upset victory over South Africa Saturday making the upcoming clash with Scotland a must-win encounter.

Japan, ranked 15th, beat third-ranked South Africa, 34-32, after regulation time in the most dramatic fashion to cause one of the biggest upsets in Rugby World Cup history.

Suddenly, the pool that was owned by South Africa is wide open.

England got past a valiant Fiji, and New Zealand finally put away a tenacious Argentina but not after being behind at the half and receiving two yellow cards — one of which to their captain Richie McCaw, only his third yellow card in 144 test matches, which is a world record.

Georgia beat Tonga in another epic encounter, and this Rugby World Cup, the eighth installment, is going to send many bookies back to the drawing board.

Julian Bristow is the coach of the Steamboat Springs Rugby Club and will be following the Rugby World Cup for the Steamboat Pilot & Today.