“We know we’ve got it in us, sevens is the game of the unknown, the time on that clock is nothing for the players. You can deliver something, you can create something.”

Williams watched the Americans take advantage of greasy conditions, and knows the Australian side can learn from that.

“That slippery watermelon seed sort of ball, we’ve gotta be able to look after it, and we weren’t doing that in those conditions. We’ve got to obviously get a lot tighter and really trust each other.”

Australian coach John Manenti wasn’t too disappointed with the loss, impressed with the courage of his side.

“Obviously you want to win every game of footy you play but there’s always good lessons when you don’t win.”

Manenti appeared unprepared for the cool change, and what was driving rain in the early evening games.

“We put a fair few plans around playing in the hot and dry weather and obviously that never eventuated.”

The best tries of the day weren’t from winning sides, but rather China’s Liu Xiaoqian doing first damage against the US, and Papua New Guinea’s Fatima Rama whose leap into a try was as artful as her burning Michaela Blyde down the wing at her age (38) was audacious.

Day two of play sees quarterfinal action and the chance of more rain. It will be interesting to see who that favours.