The USA Rugby Men’s Collegiate All Americans made an impressive statement with a 55-10 defeat of the Glendale Raptors Friday night in Infinity Park in Glendale, CO.

?? and well done to these members of @MLifeRugby for being honored at the @USARugby All-America camp! pic.twitter.com/ECcxQ8uxLd

— Life Running Eagles (@LifeUAthletics) August 18, 2018

The game was the culmination of a week-long assembly for the All Americans, and a stern test as the youngsters were pit against an experienced and savvy (if out-of-season) Glendale team.

“We all know how good Glendale is,” said All American prop Alex Maughan (Life University) before the game. “Out of all the MLR teams I think they have the most capped USA players. They certainly have a lot of them. I have played with and against a lot of those guys and we know they are going to try to smash us.”

Master the basics, face the @glendaleraptors.

Phase Two of #MCAAcamp ?? culminates in one exciting matchup this Friday @infinitypark.

Admission is ? pic.twitter.com/gX13BxGsxe

— USA Rugby (@USARugby) August 16, 2018

It’s the usual MO between an older team and a younger team - beat the youngsters with power. The Younger team then tries to play fast. Maughan, however, unveiled a slightly different approach.

“Why can’t we smash them?” He said. “We can play fast, and we will, and we’ll try to use our fitness, but we also feel people will be writing us off and we are going to give them as big of a contest, everywhere, as possible.”

.@glendaleraptors enjoying story time @TheBookies4315 today reading @risforrugby with some kiddos from Glendale! #RaptorsRead #RaptorsintheCommunity Thanks Will and Luke for sharing the love of this great game #rugby pic.twitter.com/fZbyIAWweo

— Glendale Raptors (@glendaleraptors) August 15, 2018

With their marching orders, the All Americans struck early, and took a shocking 34-5 lead into the break. Harley Wheeler scored early and added a second, while Deion Mikesell's run beat three Raptors in three different ways. Duncan Van Schalkwyk was superb in his kicking.

The All Americans rolled from there, punishing turnovers and scrumming extremely well.

More than the result, the performance showed that the All American program still has some weight to throw around when it comes to developing young players. This might not have been Glendale at 100%, and this might also have been an All American assembly with some rough timing and even missing a player or two, but the Collegiates showed the benefit of almost a week in camp.

All Americans 55
Tries: Wheeler 3, Wnglewski, Mikesell, Rodriguez, McNerney
Convs; Van Schalkwyk 6, Wilson
Pens: Van Schalkwyk 2