Re-post from @RugbyBuzz – Hey Refs! USA Rugby can win

By Buzz McClain, Special to Universal Sports

Let me tell you what absolutely cannot happen in the Rugby World Cup match pitting the USA against Russia, Thursday in New Plymouth.

This CANNOT happen, but in my bones, I’m so fearful that it will that I have trouble sleeping thinking about it.

It seems referees have a natural – or supernatural – dispensation to refuse to believe that America can win a rugby test match. It’s like the Native Americans who literally couldn’t see the European ships as they first approached the shore; they had never seen anything like it, and their belief system refused to accept what their eyes were seeing.

That’s what it’s like when the Eagles play. The referees see things the rest of us don’t, and they don’t see things the rest of us do. And they also don’t seem to be able to end the game when it’s supposed to end when the USA is winning.

In the last year there have been two international test matches involving the USA – one men’s, one women’s – where the Yanks were winning at the end of 80 minutes but instead of ending the game, the referee didn’t blow the whistle to stop it. And didn’t blow it, and didn’t blow it, until they blew it entirely.

It’s like they got it in their head that, “Hey, the Americans are winning; this isn’t supposed to happen. What should I do?”

So the game goes on. And on. And on.

I’m exaggerating, right?

Folks, this clip begins at the 87th minute! It’s how Georgia got into the Rugby World Cup, with a victory over the Yanks, with nearly 10 minutes of extra time added to a game that should have been over reasonably eight minutes earlier. It was back-breaking and heart-breaking at the same time.

Even the USA Women’s team isn’t immune to this syndrome, having fallen victim to it as recently as August against England in the Nation’s Cup tournament. England won 15-11, but when the game was supposed to be over, the Yanks were ahead 11-10, and had been for 20 minutes.

And then came the “overtime.” The “extra time.” The “injury minutes.”

One, two minutes, that’s average.

Three minutes, that’s long.

Four minutes, five minutes . . . that’s a lot of time holding your breath, kicking for touch and expecting the whistle to alert the world that you just beat England.

Six minutes, it begins to dawn on you, oh crap, the fix is in, you know it in your heart, “they” are not going to let you win . . .

The game went 87 minutes before England finally scored the try the referee worked so hard to create. THEN the whistle went. You could cry, and plenty did.

But you know, a funny thing. Eventually, the Native Americans saw the ships on the horizon, because they had seen enough of them and now could accept in their minds what their eyes were seeing.

And then they kicked European butts for decades.

Let’s roll.