USA Men's 15s Head Coach Gary Gold and new captain Bryce Campbell sat down with reporters in a virtual press conference Thursday and gave some thoughts to the challenge they face on Sunday against England.

The Eagles haven't played in over 18 months, but England was one of their most recent opponents. GRR asked both Gold and Campbell about what they learned from that meeting with England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. And, yes, we know this is a far less experienced England team in this British & Irish Lions Tour year, but that's just the way of the rugby world, and Gold addresses this anyway.

Gold said it wasn't really that recently that the Eagles have played anyone, and England has played about a dozen test matches since then.

""They're not top five rugby teams in the world for nothing," said Gold speaking of both England and Ireland. "They've got ridiculously good strength in depth. The team we're playing on the weekend obviously got to a Rugby World Cup Final and in the process beat the All Blacks in the semifinal quite convincingly. What makes them good is the intensity and the pace that they play at and they are able to execute their skills at that intensity and pace."

Gold also looks at Ireland and noted that the USA was in the game with about 55 games to go and then in about four minutes of play the floodgates opened.

Against England the USA lost 45-7 "making errors we weren't supposed to make."

Gold said the Major League Rugby competition has helped give his players time playing under pressure. It's not test match rugby, but it's a good level.

"We have to manage the game carefully against teams of this nature. We're not going to get a huge amount of opportunities but when we do get those opportunities we have to make them county," said Gold.

And on the flip side, said Campbell, opportunities are key on defense, too.

"I don't know if we learned this but it was proven to us: when you give teams like that opportunities, they'll take them," said the captain.. We also showed that when you take away opportunities and you play well we know we can be competition when we stick to plan. We can play with these teams. It's going to take a massive effort to get a win but we know we can be competitive."