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Washington - Mike Te'o scored two tries and the United States routed Chile 64-0 Saturday to seize the lead of the Americas Rugby Championship over Argentina by a lone bonus point.
The South American side took a 24-21 road victory at Uruguay that left them level at 2-0 and one drawn with the Americans, who were deadlocked 35-35 with Argentina in their opening match.
But the 10-try outburst by the US Eagles against Chile earned an extra bonus point in the overall standings, giving them a 13-12 edge with two matches remaining in the round-robin intercontinental showdown.
Canada remained third at 2-1 on 10 points with a 52-25 home triumph over winless Brazil, getting two tries each from Lucas Rumball and Clay Panga.
"To get one try was amazing but to get two was just a bonus," Panga said. "It was an unreal feeling. It's a great testament to how hard the boys worked."
Te'o, from the US Sevens squad, scored in the 64th and 77th minutes and fly half JP Eloff kicked seven conversions and scored his first international try, one of six Eagles to achieve that feat in the rout.
"The performance is more important (than the margin)," US coach John Mitchell said. "I think we're still naive in terms of game management, but these are problems that have solutions and we're dealing with a very youthful team."
Also scoring tries for the Americans were Chris Baumann, Nic Edwards, Joe Taufete'e, Lorenzo Thomas, Jake Anderson, Chad London and Luke Hume.
"For me, it was a good performance but maybe too much individualism," Mitchell said. "Sometimes that can happen in a game like this. At times the execution wasn't on, but if you keep going to space there's always going to be a high probability of scoring."
Canada also had tries from Paul Ciulini, Mike Hamson and Ray Barkwill and 13 points kicking from Andrew Ferguson in keeping pace with the leaders.
Marcos Bollini, Juan Cappiello and Franco Cuaranta scored tries for Argentina, which also had two conversions from Juan Novillo and a conversion and penalty kick by reserve Pedro Mercerat.
The scene shifts to South America as the five-week event continues next weekend with the United States at Brazil and Uruguay at Chile on Saturday and Canada visiting Argentina on Sunday.
