USA remain unbeaten in Americas

England edge Wales in Six Nations

LOS ANGELES, Feb 11, (AFP): The United States scored 15 unanswered points in a dominant second-half display Saturday en route to a 29-10 victory over Canada in the Americas Rugby Championship.

Just one score separated the two sides at halftime at Papa Murphy’s Park in Sacramento, California.

Nate Augspurger sneaked around the corner for an early US try, with Will Magie slotting the conversion.

A flowing attack then ended with Ryan Matyas cutting through for another converted try.

Canada kept in touch, however, as DTH van der Merwe found Patrick Parfrey alone on the left flank to dive into the corner.

Brock Staller converted to narrow the gap to 14-7 and that’s where they stood at the break.

Canada struck first after the interval when Staller put a penalty goal over from 40 meters to trim the deficit to four. After that it was virtually all Eagles. Hanco Germishuys, the in-form flanker powered past three defenders for a try and Magie made it three-forthree before Will Hooley slotted his first career test points to stretch the lead.

England’s Jack Nowell is tackled by Wales’ Elliot Dee (right), during the Six Nations international rugby union match at Twickenham Stadium in London on Feb 10.

(AP)

kick-off when ace goalkicker Leigh Halfpenny, who scored 24 points in a 34-7 thrashing of Scotland in Cardiff last weekend, was ruled out with a foot infection. His place at fullback was taken by Anscombe. England made two changes from the side that overwhelmed Italy 46-15 in Rome.

This time inside centre Farrell landed a difficult touchline conversion and England were 12-0 up in the 20th minute.

Wales tried to hit back but Anscombe had a try disallowed in a tight call by New Zealand television match official Glenn Newman, who ruled he had knocked-on trying to ground the ball in a race with Watson.

An earlier infringement saw Patchell kick a simple penalty as England turned around 12-3 ahead.

England replaced No.8 Sam Simmonds with Underhill at the break while early in the second half Jack Nowell came on after Watson appeared to suffer a hamstring injury.

Wales’s blindside flanker Aaron Shingler made a great break but Wales conceded a penalty at an ensuing ruck.

The Welsh were struggling to control what possession they had and in the 56th minute Patchell was replaced by powerhouse wing George North, with Anscombe moving to fly-half.

England continued to force turnovers and were still two scores ahead going into the final quarter of the match as a brilliant cover tackle in the corner by Underhill denied centre Scott Williams what seemed a certain try.

Anscombe cut the deficit but England capped a fine defensive display to see out the game. won a tight deciding doubles against Aryna Sabalenka and Lidziya Marozava 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-4.

Earlier, Maria downed Vera Lapko 6-4, 5-7, 6-0 and Sabalenka beat Antonia Lottner 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to make the score 2-2.

Czech captain Petr Pala expects Germany to call up former world number one and two-time major winner Angelique Kerber as well as Julia Georges — both top 10 players — for the semifinal.

“They have a strong calibre, because Angie (Kerber) has been playing excellent tennis this year and (Julia) Goerges played great in the second half of last year and she started well this year too,” said Pala.

“The German team is terribly strong, so we need a strong team too to play against them, but with the team we have here, we can beat anyone.”

In La Roche sur Yon, France made the semi-finals for the third time in four years when Kristina Mladenovic won her third point of the weekend by teaming with world number 228 Amandine Hesse to beat Kirsten Flipkens and Elise Mertens 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the deciding doubles.

French number one Mladenovic had earlier seen off Australian Open semi-finalist Mertens 6-4, 6-4 before Alison Van Uytvanck eased past Pauline Parmentier 6-1, 6-3 to

pull the hosts level.

In Montpellier, France, French tennis number one Lucas Pouille clinched his fifth career ATP title on Sunday with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 defeat of compatriot Richard Gasquet in the Montpellier final.

Three-time former champion Gasquet reached the final of the event for a sixth straight year, but the 31-year-old finished runner-up Czech Petra Kvitova returns the ball to Swiss Belinda Bencic in first round of the International Tennis Federation Fed Cup match between Czech Republic and Switzerland on Feb 11, in Prague. (AFP)

for the second time in a row following his 2017 defeat to Alexander Zverev.

Pouille, who sealed the Davis Cup for France in last year’s final, missed his country’s first-round victory over the Netherlands in Albertville last week with a neck injury.

In Sofia, Stan Wawrinka failed to reach his first final since returning after knee surgery as he was dumped out in the Sofia Open last four by Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic on Saturday.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka, who made his comeback from injury at the Australian Open last month, lost 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 to the world number 129, who will face Romanian Marius Copil in Sunday’s final.

Wawrinka battled hard in the opening set, but saw Basic take a tie-break on his third set point, before the Swiss threw away a 4-2 lead in the second.

The 32-year-old will now turn his attentions to next week’s ATP event in Rotterdam, where his compatriot and 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer can become the oldest-ever world number one with a run to the semifinals.

Wawrinka, who was beaten by American Tennys Sandgren in the Australian Open second round, could meet Federer in the Rotterdam last eight.