The USA have booked a showdown with England for the inaugural Churchill Cup crown after battling past Canada 16-11 in a fiercely contested clash in Vancouver.
The Eagles now play England 'A' in a title decider at the Thunderbird Stadium on June 28 but will have a dress rehearsal against them ion the final round-robin game this Saturday.
Their triumph however was not without controversy. The USA, reduced to 14 men after the sending off of Alec Parker, held off a desperate late drive that looked to have resulted in a try for Llanelli lock Jamie Cudmore.
But it was ruled as held up by referee Roy Maybank and from the ensuing scrum the Eagles mamanged to clear their lines for the whistle to end the game.
Canada opened the scoring in the third minute when skipper Ryan Banks made a break in midfield, offloaded to wing Sean Fauth who fed Quentin Fyffe, who scored his first test rugby try. Bob Ross missed the conversion and Canada had an 8-0 lead.
Link Wilfley put the US on the board with a twenty-two metre effort, with Bob Ross rounding out the first half scoring with a penalty in injury time to put the teams into the break with Canada leading 8-3.
Just before the interval Canada's Phil Murphy and the Eagles' Alec Parker were sin-binned for an off the ball incident - this following an earlier Canadian yellow card for prop Garth Cooke.
The US scored another penalty to open the second half - Wilfley landing a 50m penalty to cut the Canadian lead to two at 8-6.
Phil Eloff then put the US in the lead with a hard run near the line netting a converted try. 13-8 USA.
Wilfley then added another penalty from 40 metres to put his team further ahead 16-8.
Ross hit a penalty with just five minutes left to make it close, but the US held on for a final score of 16-11, breaking a three game losing streak to the Canucks.
USA 16
Tries: Phil Eloff
Con: Link Wilfley
Pen: Kink Wilfley (2)
Canada 11
Try: Quentin Fyffe
Pen: Bob Ross (2)