IRELAND v USA REACTION:AS A proud, thoughtful New Yorker, Mike Petri will remember this day and this game more vividly than any other in his life. It began with a memorial service in St Andrew's Church, which the squad and American dignitaries such as the ambassador to New Zealand, David Heubner, attended and ended with Paul Emerick giving a military salute after picking off an intercept try with the last play of the game.

They lost, of course, and the defeat rankled, but he and his team-mates, not least captain Todd Clever, were bursting with pride, and Eddie O’Sullivan and his coaching staff could also take satisfaction in a job well done.

“Obviously it’s frustrating,” said Petri. “You feel like you played well and it was right within your reach, but credit to the Irish. They stayed patient and pulled the win out in the end but I’m really proud of our guys.

“The determination that we showed and the pride that we showed, especially on defence, it was a great outing. Coach (Mike) Tolkin and coach (Eddie) O’Sullivan really prepared us well with our defensive system and the rest was just up to us to go out and throw the marker down.”

Along the way, there were innumerable moments of poignancy to mark a long, emotional day on the tenth anniversary of the atrocities of September 11th, 2001.

“I received so many e-mails from home. Specifically I got an email from James Dowdell, a fireman and a good friend of mine, whose brother is in Afghanistan and whose father, Kevin, was killed as a fireman on September 11th. He was a rescue fireman and one of the first guys up the building. I got a great email from him.

“Also, a guy by the name of John Lugano came down to our jersey presentation. With the USA we do a jersey presentation before the games. The jerseys are usually handed out by the captain and my jersey was given to me by John, which was really special. He came all the way out from New York just for the game. His brother Sean was killed on September 11th and I played rugby with his brother Mike

“They all went to the same High School as me, Xavier High School in Lower Manhattan, so the fact he was here supporting us, and to be a part of that and to get my jersey from him was just such an incredible honour. It was really, really amazing.”

Now, at least, Petri has a 9/11 from which he can take happier memories.

“Without a doubt. Coach O’Sullivan touched on that before the game. He made sure that all of our energy was channelled into a positive performance and he just said that this is one of those moments you’ll never forget for the rest of your life. Certainly from the start of that jersey presentation to now it’s something that will stay with me forever, and I’m sure everyone will say the same thing.”

Next up the big one against Russia here in New Plymouth on Thursday, which hardly seems fair. “It’s definitely a quick turnaround, but the stakes are high again. We’re still in the World Cup but it is Russia. From the beginning we’ve thrown that down as a target for us, and we’ve said that that’s the big game.

“We’ve just got to get back up on the horse; get in the ice baths, get the recovery sessions in, sit in the video room, do the analysis work and be ready for what I’m sure is going to be a strong Russian team coming out for their debut in the World Cup.”

Both Clever and O’Sullivan expressed pride in the Eagles’ performance. “I’m disappointed to lose but I can’t complain about the performance,” said O’Sullivan. “We fought our way through from the first minute to the 81st minute. We were a little punch drunk at times, we struggled at scrum time, we lost a lot of hits on engagement and our line fired pretty badly at times.

“But they put in a huge effort and I think they deserved a little break at the end for all their hard work.”