World Rugby listened to the complaints of second-tier nations in 2011 and fixed up the schedule so that everyone had a quick turnaround at some point. But for the USA, the schedule made things very difficult for them, in that they had to play South Africa on October 7 and Japan on October 11. Basically, if they were to have players fresh for Japan, the USA coaches had to select a different team for South Africa four days before.

They did, the result was OK for 40 minutes, but with mass subs, the game fell apart. I don’t quibble too much with this decision - it was forced on them - but I do think two players needed to be made essentially co-captains and kept on the field the whole time. As I said in this week’s RuggaMatrix America Podcast, making Samu Manoa was a great move, pulling him off at 48 minutes wasn’t.

(Back to A Post-RWC Eagle Assessment)