Gary Gold spelled it out.

The Eagles are disappointed.

"It was not a good enough performance," the coach said. "You’re not going to win rugby games like that, not against world-class teams. We feel we let ourselves down badly. I don’t think it was credible, not by our standards. We’re a better team than that."

Gold said the USA lost every aspect of play: set piece, the contact area, tackling, ball-handling. And, especially, they lost the kicking game.

No argument here. The Eagles had the wrong guys kicking, they kicked too much, and they didn't get enough territory with those kicks. England scored thanks to a poor box kick from Shaun Davies. AJ MacGinty had several kicks to touch from penalties that didn't get anywhere near enough territory to put England under pressure.

The USA did not have the ball enough, but when they did have it, they lost it in contact with knock-ons and holding-on penalties.

Then there were dumb errors. Will Hooley touching a ball that was clearly sailing into touch, for no potential gain, really, was dumb. John Quill waiting, checking his watch, and then taking out one of the most famous players in the world was dumb. Red card — they will throw the book at him. When the USA offense finally started to put England under some stress, MacGinty kicked.

And after the dumb errors, there was the bad luck. David Ainuu rolled his ankle and likely will be out for at least a game. That happened after three minutes. Gold said he took a risk putting Olive Kilifi on the bench, thinking Kilifi was probably not game fit but could give him 20 good minutes.

Well, Kilifi soldiered on for 77 minutes, but, added Gold, "that bit us well and truly in the backside today ... that's 100 percent on my shoulders. But losing David was a big blow."

There were several sequences when the Eagles caused the ball to spill only to have England recover, or to ball be knocked on again, this time by an America. It was England's day.

Referee Nic Berry

Young referees can often at least appear to be worried about drawing the ire of the establishment. Certainly England benefited from some key calls. Some high tackles on Will Hooley, John Quill, and Blaine Scully were ignored (the Quill high tackle ended up being a penalty against the USA). The scrum that injured Ainuu should have been a penalty against England, and the scrum penalties were a bit more even than they were called.

In addition, there were a few times when England ran into their own players and used their teammates as blockers.

But Berry was generous to the USA on the offside line, and let play flow when he could have made it a scrum-fest. He was right to red-card John Quill.

Injury Report

David Ainuu rolled his ankle, and it appeared to be a high ankle sprain or something similar. He likely won't play against France. Will Hooley seemed to have a concussion and was taken to the hospital. He almost certainly won't play. 

Titi Lamositele left the game early but didn't seem to be badly hurt.

Eagles Players & Coaches' Thoughts On The Match

"We’re still bitterly disappointed in the performance and the result, but I have a tremendous amount of confidence and faith in these players," Gold said. "We will be better, we definitely will be better.... It wasn't what we wanted but when you get no possession and you're playing out of your own half for the majority of the game, you can't really play rugby, can you?"

—Gary Gold

"After halftime we took a good look at ourselves. We hadn't had the ball but we thought if we do get the ball, we can continue to play. England had a game plan they were able to execute. Credit to them. It was incredibly tough but they came out and did what they wanted to do." 

— Greg Peterson

"It was a really tough day for us as a forward pack. All we really wanted was to show our aggression but that never really happened for us." 

— Joe Taufete'e

"One of the boys came off after two minutes, one got stretchered off and another got red-carded, so we just gotta roll with the punches and do our best next week. We have six days until the next game so that's all we've got to focus on." 

— Mike Te'o