The Australians didn't waste any playing time on squad members that they don't see as vital members of their starting squad and played an extremely strong side against the vastly under par United States side. Robbie Deans began with the forward pack of props James Slipper and Ben Alexander, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, second rows Rob Simmons and Nathan Sharpe, flankers Rocky Elsom and Ben McCalman and number 8 Wycliff Palu. And he kicked off with the flying backs of Scrum half and skipper Will Genia, Maussie fly half Quade Cooper, wingers Drew Mitchell and Adam Ashley-Cooper, centre's Rob Horne and Anthony Faingaa and fullback Kurtley Beale. He then utilized a subs bench consisting of Stephen Moore, Sekope Kepu, Dan Vickerman, Radike Samo, Luke Burgess, Berrick Barnes and regular starter Pat McCabe. The only obvious absentees are squad captain James Horwill, injured David Pocock and injured superback James O'Connor.
Although the scoreline of 67-5 will have undoubtedly pleased Australian coach Robbie Deans, the scoreline is still misleading. First for the positives, Australia's attacking presence was sublime against the minnows defence and the wallabies defence kept the Eagles at arms length pretty much the entire game.
The Australians put pressure on right from the kick off but the Eagles defence should be extremely proud of their effort within the first half as they contained the Australians fairly well and stopped them scoring even more tries than they actually did. However Quade Cooper cut deep into and through the Eagles defence with his illusive counter-attacking run which was ultimately finished off in the corner by Rob Horne after 8 minutes. Elsom then struck with with try No.2 after another 3 minutes when the Roo's stretched the Eagles defence which created a huge overlap for the flanker to go over the line
The Eagles then took the fight to the Aussies with scrum half Tim Usasz controlling every move like a puppet master, the Eagles looked dominant when they had a 20 phase move, but the move ultimately ended with the eagles trying to chip over the Roo's defence which Quade Cooper got his hands on. The move looked over at this point but when Cooper was stopped over his own line the Eagles forced a 5m scrum. The Eagles No. 8 JJ Gagiano struck down the blindside with a try straight from the scrum.
The Eagles continued to drive hard for a second try to spark a comeback but when Kevin Swiryn lost control of the ball inside the Australian 22 all hope was lost. Rocky Elsom got his hands on the fumble and launched his wallabies on a counterattack which resulted in Adam Ashley Cooper sprinting clear of the United States defence and passing the ball to Kurtley Beale for the score. Quade Cooper converted the resulting kick.
Australia were then searching for the bonus point try, Faingaa was the man who got them this glory. He got his first try before the half when he was on hand to finish off a superb move by Rob Horne. Drew Mitchell then showed why he is an international when he finished with a powerful move, crashing through two tackles then diving over the line. Cooper again converted for 2 points. McCabe then made an immediate impact coming off the bench when he gathered a pass from Adam Ashley Cooper and then sidestepped the defence to score.
The Australian's seventh, eighth and ninth tries came through a mind blowing six minute spell by Adam Ashley Cooper who was amazing throughout the game. His first came when he burst clear with shear pace to score on the outside, the second came when he made the most out of turnover ball from the Eagles to waltz over the line and then finally scored his third via supporting a Roo breakaway.
The Americans disappeared in the second half of this game and it was never more obvious than when Faingaa added his second by sliding over in the corner. Things got even worse for the Eagles when winger Blaine Scully was sin-binned. With two minutes left the Aussies struck for the final time when Samo was put clear via the overlap.
Todays game showed how vast the difference is between the elite sides in world rugby and the minnow nations of world rugby is. This is why I still believe the Roos will win the world cup, because they have bounce-back ability and come out dominate after being humiliated by the Irish. And they have the outstanding man of the match Adam Ashley Cooper.
All I can say now is the star spangled banner is not flying high tonight.
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