While the Americans lost the match at the Toyota Stadium 53-25, they did put up a strong first half performance to lead the match at the interval.

The USA are using the tournament to prepare for their upcoming Rugby World Cup repechage tournament in Dubai in order to book their ticket to France next year.

Gold told OFM Sport that they learned a lot from the game, and he was particularly impressed with his charges' fight and grit against a fully professional outfit.

"By our own admission at half time, we thought that we could have and should have held onto the ball a little longer and we would have got more out of it, said the former Springbok assistant coach.

"In the second half, we got starved of possession. They sort of did to us what we did to them in the first half. They camped down and put us under pressure. We didn't exit properly and, from a momentum point of view, we just made error after error and it got us into trouble.

"There is a huge amount to learn here. It's a great learning curve, but there are a lot of things that I'm very pleased with. They might be in the micro-detail and I appreciate that a lot of people will be overcome by the scoreboard, but we had guys here that haven't played since June when they left their clubs in the Major League Rugby.

"I was really happy with their adaption as well as the fight and the grit the guys put into it."

On Friday at 17:00, the USA will tackle the Pumas, while at 19:00 the Cheetahs will be in action against the Griquas.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport