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Hercus proud of Eagles

Iron Eagles: Hercus (r) helps bring down Josh Lewsey of England

United States captain Mike Hercus has paid tribute to his side's battling performance in Saturday's 28-10 loss to England in Lens, but backed the beleaguered defending World Cup champions to bounce back.

England opened their defence of the Webb Ellis trophy in ponderous fashion and the Eagles duly took full advantage of the situation.

Hercus, previously of Sale Sharks and the Scarlets, kicked a penalty and then converted the final try of the match when replacement forward Matekitonga Moeakiola, of Utah's Park City Haggis, crossed six minutes from time to give the Eagles a score they fully deserved.

"I'm very proud of the guys," said the Belmont Shore fly-half.

"After a while we realised we could hold them [England] and I'm disappointed we couldn't take some of our opportunities.

"Several occasions we had line-outs close to their line. But the fact we got those opportunities against the world champions is good for us.

"It was one of those games as much as England tried to get up for us, they probably thought at the end of the day 'it's just the Eagles'.

"No doubt their players will lift for the bigger games. It was a grand final for us and it wasn't for them."

Eagles coach Peter Thorburn added his praise, saying the performance at Stade Felix Bollaert will stand his side in good stead for the games to follow.

"We've been struggling a little bit because we don't train and play a lot together," said the New Zealander.

"The attitude and tackling lifted, I think, amazingly well.

"Moral victories don't get you points but for us it was a moral victory.

"I hope we learn from it and recover. We've got Tonga on Wednesday and they're pretty physical."