The type of day that forces cattle to congregate into steaming groups in a sheltered corner of the field was not the platform Eddie O'Sullivan's fringe players had hoped for. Holding the ball, as Brian O'Driscoll noted, "was a liability".

Showboating? That would wait for another day. And in reality how could any level of performance against the Eagles surpass Ireland's collective assault on the Springboks last weekend? You got the feeling that despite the performance from Eric Miller, no matter what happened against the Americans, last week's players have more than proven their worth for a crack at Argentina.

It was, if anything, a chance for Ireland to show that even with quality on the pitch, O'Sullivan can look to his benches and further and feel quietly satisfied the provinces and schools are keeping the assembly line well stocked. The match was in essence about what Ireland have at their disposal next week, next year and in three years' time at the next World Cup.

Debutants Tommy Bowe and Denis Leamy both took steps forward. Bowe with his boyish athleticism will become stronger. Still, he took his first international try with more than a hint of know-how. "The guy was coming across at an awful pace so I thought that if I dived early he'd put my legs into touch before I got anywhere near the line," said the winger. "So I thought I'd just stay up, stay strong for as long as I could and put it down."

Bowe's welcome to the international game came via a charging US loosehead prop, Mike McDonald. Bowe was lifted by the UCLA player.

"Yeah, it was a big hit alright especially when Paul O'Connell said he pushed him into me. When he tackled me he did a big 'oh yeah' in a nice American accent. I knew it was going to happen. The big hits are always going to come in these matches. It's a case of stepping up to it and keeping the ball.

"What I was looking forward to was getting my hands on the ball just to get a bit of the nerves out of my system. I think I handled the nerves all right . . . I knew going out there with the weather it was going to be slippy ball stuff."

While America delivered on their promise and presented Ireland with a physical challenge, it was scripted US burn-out over the 80 minutes would be part of their undoing. The statistics showed Ireland played 39 minutes 18 seconds in the US half in the second period compared to 21 minutes and 31 second in the first.

"One of the issues of the game, whether we liked it or not, was that they were mostly amateur players and they would struggle over 80 minutes of professional rugby. So we knew that in the first 40 they were going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at us," said O'Sullivan. "They'd do the same for the second 40 but there's not many kitchen sinks left after half-time. We did wear them down. They were a tired outfit but that's just professionals against amateurs. Yeah, that was part of the plan.

"We ran at them early and probably over played the ball but it was to make them work hard. We didn't want a quiet first half. The more they had to do the more it suited us because we should have an advantage in that area. It's the pace of the game that gets them. When we were able to get good gain lines and quick ball that hurt (them)."

Not a quiet first half, but from O'Sullivan's point of view not exactly River Dance either and had the Eagles possessed a player with a golden boot like David Humphreys, they may have taken an early lead.

"I felt we kinda kept them in the game at times because we hadn't the pace up," said Irish prop Marcus Horan. "I felt we were slowing the game down and it probably suited them. I think we could have pushed it a bit quicker and lost them a bit earlier in the game.

"At half-time we were very disappointed with ourselves. Even before the coach spoke to us you could see it in the faces of the lads that we hadn't upped the pace."

For the USA, they might look to the International Rugby Board (IRB) to help them keep contact with a professional game. Ground has been lost. O'Sullivan was sympathetic: "I'd like to give a lot of credit to the Americans here as well," he said. "They came together a few days ago and they'd to get their heads around the fact they'd a Test game in a short space of time.

"It's not that the gap is widening between us and the USA. It's that the gap is widening between the countries that have professional rugby and the countries that have amateur rugby. They don't have the luxury of Argentina sending the bulk of their squad overseas. The problem is in any country that has an amateur base competing internationally, the gap there has been widening since day one.

"That's the big challenge because countries that can't sustain a professional game are going to fall way behind," observed O'Sullivan. "I have views but I'll leave it to the IRB. It's been a long week."