We’ve talked about it in these pages about the need for quick ball out of the rucks, and if you look at that first USA try, you see the value of quick ball.

Danny Barrett picked up from the scrum and took it up, Thretton Palamo cleared out, and then Mike Petri popped a pass to Greg Peterson who was circling around back with fellow lock Cam Dolan. The thing that makes this work is that Petri may not have known that Peterson specifically was on his right, but he knew someone would be there; it was clear they’d worked on this. And because there was faith that the second-phase attack would be there, Barrett laid the ball back nicely and everyone was thinking “win the ball” not “make sure we don’t mess up.”

With quick ball sent to a player running onto the ball, you win rugby games. it’s as simple as that. This try was the most gratifying to see for fans.

Item #3 - Thretton Palamo and Blaine Scully