The Wallaroos-Eagles clash has become the first match to receive the ‘game of the tournament’ headline, the 31-all result blowing Pool A wide open at the World Cup.
A notable change from the mostly one-sided results seen so far during the tournament, it was one captain Emily Chancellor and coach Jo Yapp will be analysing closely as they prepare to face a dangerous England outfit.
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Front of mind will be discipline, with the Wallaroos conceding nine penalties in the second half, and 13 overall: over double what the US were penalised for.
“A rollercoaster. We had some really great moments, what a whirlwind,” Chancellor told reporters when asked about the match.
“I felt like in the first half we held a lot of ascendancy and then we just gave opportunities back to them from too many ill-disciplined breakdowns.
“We've got to be picking up that game because without a clean breakdown we can't play fast ball. My feel right now is we let them back into the game and we can control that.
“I think we had some good dialogue with [referee] Sarah Cox. She wasn't seeing the same picture as we were and that's fine. Ultimately, it's on us to be more accountable to our breakdown.
“We did have the comms saying we needed to be more disciplined there and stop trying to mess it up. But sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way or it doesn't pay off.
“I'm definitely not blaming anyone else right now.”
It was an eerily similar space to the infamous 2024 clash against the Eagles in Melbourne, which saw the USA win 32-25 after coming home strong.
However, Yapp was quick to recognise her side’s determination to not give up, especially going behind in the dying stages.
“I think it just shows the belief in the group because it would be easy at that point when we were so close to full time to just sort of let our heads drop and think the game was gone, and we didn't,” said the head coach.
“That shows we kept playing and we put it in the corner and we managed to come back and get the draw.
“I'm really proud of the girls for that. I felt we actually executed a lot of what we said, but the key bit in all of it was the discipline, and then in that first half where they got on the ball a bit too easy. Our attack breakdown, we need to look at as well.”
While the side has produced several promising full game performances, Yapp will still have plenty to do to try and contain her former side when they play in Brighton next week.
Discipline will be one of the key elements addressed, with the result against the USA a chance to pick up key learnings.
“That was the message going on,” Yapp explained.
“It was consecutive penalties that gave them the easy entry, which is frustrating. Some of those penalties were in our control, some weren't, and that's hard.
“But ultimately, we ended up going behind but also proud of the girls because even though we went behind, I don't know, six minutes to go, we still managed to get back up there and to score, to bring it back to the draw.
“So it's in our control now and we need to look forward to next week.”
“You've got to play the best team to beat the best team, and it is crunch time,” Chancellor said of their forthcoming England clash.
“There'll be a lot of physicality in our Tuesday session and we'll all put our best foot forward to be selected and see what happens from there.
“We'll have to step up, it's a game that matters for us now.
“We need to win, that would be the easiest option. Otherwise, we need to look at the four and against and we'll be playing our butts off to make sure that we're going into that quarter-final.”
