The Manu Samoa 7s lost their opening match of the Vancouver leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series 19-5 to U.S.A. on Sunday morning Samoan time.

They had their chances to stay with the Eagles, but couldn’t hold onto the ball, coughing up seven handling errors in the 14 minutes of play.

Tofatuimoana Solia and Losi Filipo made some nice early carries to get Samoa over halfway early before David Afamasaga broke to take them inside the 22 metre line.

But Solia knocked on the next play, and the Manu were made to pay for their profligacy.

Martin Iosefo broke a couple of tackles and sent his captain Madison Hughes over halfway for the U.S.A.

Perry Baker then beat Joe Perez one on one to make it 5-0 with two minutes played.

Samoa were then penalised for being off their feet at the breakdown, and a tidy inside ball from Naima Fuala’au put Maceo Brown in for the U.S.A.’s second try.

At halftime, coach Sir Gordon Tietjens asked his players to tighten up their ball security.

However not long after play resumed they lost the ball in contact again, allowing Danny Barrett to get the Eagles over the 22 metre line quickly.

Martin Iosefo scored a try the very next phase, making it 19-0 in the ninth minute.

The U.S.A.’s kickoff didn’t go ten metres though, and Melani Matavao took the ball straight into the 22 from the free kick on halfway.

Joe Perez should have scored the next phase, but knocked on in the in-goal area embarrassingly.

There was time for Samoa to get on the board through Va’a Apelu Maliko, who should have doubled his tally in the final minute.

The 21-year-old tried to pick up the ball from the base of the ruck five metres out from the tryline with no defence in sight, but knocked on.

Samoa will now try and regroup ahead of their next match against Australia at 10:34 Samoan time.

USA 19 (Baker, Brown, Iosefo tries; Hughes 2/3 cons)
Samoa 5 (Maliko try; Alosio 0/1 con)
HT: 12-0