The USA suffered a set-back in their World Cup preparations by suffering an embarrassing 70-0 defeat at the hands of Cumbria at Barrow’s Craven Park.

The USA will play Samoa at Halton Stadium on Friday November 9th in the first repechage round semi final, but a win against the Pacific Island nation now looks very unlikely.

The game was marred with controversy before kick off: firstly the US side refused to change in the Craven Park dressing rooms.

This was followed by Cumbria coach Paul Crarey objecting to his opposite number Matthew Elliot naming more than 17 players in the starting line up and expecting to use unlimited interchanges.

This facilitated a 10-minute delay in the kick off, but when the game finally got underway it took little time for Cumbria to settled matters in their favour.

Tries from Liam Harrison (2), Craig Calvert, Matt Gardner and Nicky Beech along with five conversions by Darren Holt gave the home side a 30-0 at the half-time interval.

The US side had no answer to the onslaught, Calvert scoring a hat-trick of tries to increase the lead and further the visitors’ misery.

Further tries came from Carl Sice, Scott McAvoy, Beech, Dexter Miller and Brett McDermott, Holt tagging on six more goals to rattle up the 70-point total.