Friday night gave the USA Men's sevens team time to think on their mistakes and the Eagles came out firing Saturday in the Sydney 7s, defeating Scotland and Canada in fine style to finish pool play 2-1 and book a place in Sunday's Cup Quarterfinals.

The Americans did this without captain Madison Hughes, who is out for the rest of the tournament with an injury. Ben Pinkelman has taken over as captain, but, more important than that is that the cohesion remained.

"We need that communication," said USA star Perry Baker. "We say to each other 'we need comms.' Madison's always loud so we need comms like that."

What they also needed was for Baker - who missed all but two minutes of the last two tournaments with a concussion - to relax and play his game. Eager to show why he deserved to be World Rugby Sevens Player Of The Year, Baker too often was trying to make something out of nothing.

Eagles Over Scotland

That seemed to be the case early on against Scotland, but perhaps more at issue was the fact that the USA didn't see the ball for the first several minutes. Not even after Stephen Tomasin could they retain the ball, as Baker tried to beat his opposite in not space and was thrown into touch.

But Baker made up for it as pressure from him and Martin Iosefo produced an interception and a quick run to paydirt for SpeedStick.

That opened up the floodgates, because the USA is far and away the best team on the World Series circuit at retaining their kickoffs (around 42%, which is 50% better than the next most successful team, England). A retained restart and snappy hands set free Baker, who was caught but offloaded to Maka Unufe (starting in place of Hughes at scrumhalf), and just as he was ankle-tapped, Unufe passed to Danny Barrett for the try.

Unufe went high to tap back the restart kick and landed heavily, but as he was writhing on the ground, Tomasin was in at the corner. Folau Niua kicked ahead for Baker when he saw there was no sweeper, and Baker got his second. Just like that it was 26-0 at halftime.

The second half was not as strong, although a long run from Tomasin, while not producing a try, made it tough for Scotland to score quickly. In the end it was 26-12 for the USA.

Highlights: Eight teams booked places in our Cup quarter-finals! Catch up on all of the day two action ?? #Sydney7s pic.twitter.com/AcFQVD1l1p

— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) January 27, 2018

Even More Over Canada

USA head coach Mike Friday likely told his team that 26-0 at halftime is nice, but you've got to close out the game, no matter who is on the field. Against Canada, the Eagles started strong and just kept coming. Baker looked more patient, and it showed. He lined up in the midfield early on and set up Martin Iosefo for a switch back inside.

Iosefo didn't quite have the pace to make it all the way, but he drew the attention of three Canadians, allowing him to pass back to Baker for the first time.

Right from the restart Barrett surged through two players and flipped a backhand offload to Baker for try number two. When Baker had the ball next, he linked up with Unufe and Pinkelman to get the skipper a try, and then, finally, the winger beat five Canada defenders on a sidestepping, weaving run that has to be one of the best of the season. (See above video, 6:45 in)

Halftime - 28-0 for the USA.

Canada scored right off the kickoff in the second half only to see a perfectly executed lineout and passing sequence put Baker into the corner for his fourth of the game. That made it 33-7, and then Pinkelman went up the middle for a 40-7 score.

Canada scored twice late, and a pessimistic observer would tell the subs that they have only a few seconds to play their very best. Certainly the US cohesion suffered when changes were made.

More Than Just Baker

While Perry Baker leads the tournament in tries, there was more praise to go around. Tomasin continues to be one of the circuit's best defenders, and kicked for points superbly in the absence of Hughes. Pinkelman clearly is warming to his leadership role, looks bigger and stronger, and has not lost speed.

Guess who's back? @SpeedSt11ck continues to make an impressive return this time he's way out in front with 7 tries, 4 coming from one game #Sydney7s pic.twitter.com/A3krKEh1PC

— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) January 27, 2018

Barrett is a beat, of course, but his main usefulness in the last two games was in the rucks, where he repeatedly knocked opposing players on their backsides.

Now in the Cup Quarterfinals, the USA faces Fiji. But more than that, the Eagles look very much more like the team that was one of the best in the world in 2016-17. Fiji should be worried. So should everyone.