Three straight second-place finishes in the Men's Sevens World Series have helped the USA to a tie for 1st in the overall standings, but head coach Mike Friday is looking for more.

Friday knows that sometimes the difference between success and oblivion. A look at the New Zealand 7s in Hamilton this past weekend shows that.

In the quarterfinals, despite having the run of play against Scotland, the Eagles hit a bit of a wall that made the game much closer than it needed to be.

"We were in total control in that Scotland quarterfinal, and if Martin scores that try at the beginning of the 2nd half the game is killed," said Friday. "We [didn't score[, and all of a sudden hope is given to one side and frustration to the other. Scotland capitalized on that moment and we didn’t react as we needed to as a group."

And then, said the coach, players start to slide into playing as individuals, not as a team.

?INTERVIEW: @USARugby captain @MadisonHughes15 on their desire to win a first title of this #HSBC7s series at the #Sydney7s this weekend after suffering a third Cup final loss in a row in Hamilton pic.twitter.com/bqrKk0DKJf

— World Rugby Sevens (@WorldRugby7s) January 30, 2019

But they survived, which was good, because in the semifinal against New Zealand, the USA played about as good a game as you could hope for. Yes, New Zealand got a try, but from an interception - there were no defensive breakdowns, at all.

That interception, said Frida, was "another moment where we could have gotten frustrated and flustered; instead we stuck to the group plan and worked hard and got the rewards by dominating possession and working the opportunities."

All of that funneled into a final that was a completely one-sided affair - for Fiji. 

"The Fijian game I think can be best summarized that sometimes you are beaten fair and square on the night," said Friday. "In that game, everything went right for Fiji both sides of the ball which made it difficult for us. We will look at certain things we could have done slightly differently tactically to try and stop their momentum, but as we have done to teams and Fiji in the past - Dubai this year - they were better on the night in that game."

OK, so toss that aside and get after it again.

"As a squad we are improving and still have more potential," said Friday. "The boys are working on all aspects of their game and adding positional flexibility so they can seek to be complete players. This is always work in progress and I am not sure we ever get there."

The team was up early on Monday to travel to Sydney, and took the next 48 hours to recover. Wednesday was the first day they hit the training field.