There is no reason for the USA to back down against Ireland this week.

The Eagle men's 15s team has gone 9-0 in test matches and 10-1 overall this year, after all. They've done that while using a whopping 49 players, 34 of them starters. That's way more than many major rugby nations, including Ireland - nations that, arguably, can handle the depth challenges better.

But captain Blaine Scully said he has seen his teammates make the adjustments.

"We've have players go out the day before the game and it's just been next an up, every time," he told FloRugby. "Stuff happens. I had to leave the Samoa game just before halftime. But every player is part of this team. We need everyone in the squad. We have the mind-set that this is a 28-player deep team, and we need everyone. AJ [MacGinty] 's out? Next guy up. Shaun Davies is hurt. We bring in Ruben and he plays well."

Scully said he's pleased with the team's resilience. After giving up a 15-0 lead against Samoa, they rallied and eventually won. 

"You just have to flush that mistake or that error," he said. "We don't want to make those mistakes but if we do, we have to just flush it and keep playing. We know that if we stick to our systems we're going to come back. it may take 20, 40, or 60 minutes, but it will pay off."

Against Romania, Scully said the team was more disciplined, if a little impatient in the first half.

"Part of that was on me - we didn't go for points on a penalty because I thought we'd be able to get the try, but in retrospect we probably needed to go for posts," he said. "Sometimes you want to just make a statement about how dominant you are. It's born out of the faith I have in the guys and what we can do."

Now Ireland, the #2-ranked team in World Rugby, the team that just beat the #1-ranked team, New Zealand. That won't be easy. The Eagles have never beaten Ireland in nine meetings, but came close in Houston in 2013 (losing 15-12). It's worth noting that four years later, the Irish won by 36.

"All we can do it look at our performance and keep improving," said Scully. "It's going to be a tough game, but we'll put the work in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to get better and play our best. All we can do is do our very best and play our systems and play to our potential."

For most of this year, the Eagles have been playing like that. They've now got one more shot.