In the new format of the SVNS, with 12 teams and a truncated placement scenario, the most important game you play is the quarterfinal. If you lose that QF, and the deficit is large, you might end up only playing for 7th. Win and you're top four no matter what. For the first time this season the USA looked ruthless in knockout play, defeating Great Britain 27-0. It was slow going but two tries at the end of the first half, one from Esdale and one from Baker, set the tone for the rest of the game. Five tries later, the USA had five tries and allowed none.

But things didn't end well after that. In both the semi vs Argentina and the Bronze Final vs France the USA scored early and looked in really good shape, only to see the floodgates open. Against Argentina, the Eagles rebounded with two Madison Hughes tries at the end to make it closer. Against France, no such luck; France just kept coming.

“There are a lot of positives in terms of our overall performance," said USA Head Coach Mike Friday. "We showed physicality, attacking potential, speed, and the next piece we need to look at is consistency. I’m pleased with the way we’re moving forward with our defensive and attacking games. We also had improvements on our kickoff game on both sides of the ball. The harsh reality is that, yes, this is our first semifinal and bronze medal match of the season, and we did bring a greater consistency across the three days. But when you look at the games we lost, it comes down to our areas of mistakes. We didn’t stick to the details on certain plays. When you go up against the world, you have to be on point. We started fantastically well in the bronze medal match, but the details in the moment let us down. 

"The takeaway as we focus on LA is first and foremost make sure we are a fully fit team. We need to recover well and look really well at the strategies on both sides of the ball. We need to understand it, buy it, execute it, and stick to it in the moment. When we do that, we show we are a force for anybody and we will continue to move up the table. We’re looking forward to playing on home soil and for the opportunity to play in front of our family and home crowd. Hopefully everybody will come out and support us.” 

The USA kicks off their LA SVNS as the final game of Friday's action, 8:44PM against Samoa at Dignity Health Sports Park. Tickets are still on sale>> 

With the 4th-place finish the USA has not moved up in the standings and remain in 8th place. However, they have created a solid buffer ahead of Samoa and Greabt Britain to stay in the top eight. The next plan is to catch France, which is si points ahead at 36 points in 7th place. Argentina lead the SVNS Series with 78 points.