Well the Rising Sun shot down the Eagles. Japan 29- USA 19. I was really hoping the Eagles could beat Japan too. USA led 14-10 at the half but the Japanes poured on the jets and we were sunk. (Again) fitness played a part as (apparantly) the USA ran out of gas before 80 mins. The USA face Japan for round 2 in Tokyo next week. Jetlag is not an excuse as they arrived Wednesday morning.
Wasn't ESPN Classic including more rugby in their slow transition to becoming something like ESPN World (or whatever they'll call it)? They even had the Rugby Super League final which probably ranks below international tests in terms of public interest. I know ESPN360 has engage Super League, which is the other code, but it's still progress. They need to hurry up.
I remember reading a blog by that guy Brownie who used to do the rugby roundup with Brian Vizard on Fox Sports World before they rebranded to FSC. Long story short they lost a ton of money on Rugby. Even Mediazone doesn't have the Japan v USA game tomorrow.
ESPN Classic is actually doing college games as well. ESPN can do alright on domestic matches money-wise, but the money's just not there for away games (for one thing they'd have to pay a rights fee to the JRU). To be fair I have never seen a USA away game except to a major union (i.e. a game FSC/Setanta would have had anyway) so I can't complain too much.