Both teams came into the game under some selection pressures. Canceled flights and some late injuries undercut Australia XV Head Coach Stephen Larkham's preparation, and he heaped praise on his players for getting down to the work as quickly as possible.
That professionalism allowed Australia XV to, for the most part, weather a 20-minute red card shown to center David Feliuai for a high tackle reminiscent of the old NFL head slap.
"We had a very disruptive preparation to this," said Larkham. "We had some issues getting over here. So the performance wasn't perfect, we've still got a little bit to work on. But I think for the preparation that we had it was a great result. There's no doubt about that."
For the USA, their contestable kicks didn't really yield a contest—Australia tended to win those battles. ANd when the Eagles had the ball they would make ground and turn the ball over. Australia was quick to the ball but the Eagle ball protection wasn't good.
Turnovers were like red meat for the Australians.
"There were some really long periods of defense where we held out, we stopped momentum, " said USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence. "Now, on the other side, we've got to back that up with more continuity on our attack. It's not about schemes right now for us when we look at our contact turnovers and things like that. It's a thing we've been consistently working on. It's something that we have to do day-in and day-out in our environment. But, you know, we've got to build some continuity into the attack. Otherwise the defense takes the brunt of that scoreboard, but it's actually not [the defense]."
Lawrence also pointed to the 21 points given up in the final 12 minutes that made the scoreline 50% worse.
Both teams go back at it this coming Friday in New Jersey, and it will be a different game in many respects. Both teams are expected to make lineup changes, and they will also have learned something from it all.
For his part, Larkham is not expecting it to be easy.
"We weren't really sure what we were going to get," said the Australia coach. "The game sort of just got away from the US a little bit. I think they're going to learn a lot from that."
