Mike Friday proved himself wrong.

For years the USA Men's Sevens head coach has said that putting Perry Baker and Carlin Isles on the field at the same time didn't work. 

But Saturday in Vancouver, Friday was forced, somewhat, to do that. With Maka Unufe unable to go due to injury, Friday was losing scrumhalf options, and so put Isles into that position. The result, after a few penalty hiccups not related to Isles or Baker, was a 45-0 shutout of Uruguay at the Canada 7s at BC Place.

After a shaky first three minutes in which the Eagles made a few small mistakes, the USA players got back on track, sending the ball out to Isles who torched his opposite for a classic Carlin Isles try.

The rest of the game was something of a romp. Ben Pinkelman's rollicking run through traffic set up an easy stepover for Martin Iosefo. Isles blazed through for another. And then Baker scored a couple of nicely-taken tries, with one of them set up by some excellent work from Malon Al-Jiboori.

The USA team looked very strong, and more so in that a bunch of less-experienced players stepped onto the field and performed. Kevon Williams was impressive; Cody Melphy got some work done. Nick Boyer had his moments and so did Brett Thompson - back, finally, from injury.

Matai Leuta continues to play strong sevens, while Danny Barrett and Folau Niua are, as expected.

But the news may well be that Isles and Baker can share the field. That may be very, very bad news for everyone else.

"We've had to recover first and foremost from taking further injuries," said Friday before the tournament. 

"Whilst this is a shame, it provides more opportunities for others to step up. We as a group are under no illusion how hard this weekend will be; and the reality is, last week is gone and we have achieved nothing this week. So, our hunger, attitudes and ability to adapt will need to be on point. We can't take any of that for granted or we will pay the price."