Graham Henry spent the week explaining why classical Welsh outhalf play had no place in the modern game only for Arwel Thomas to contradict him with a try which bore the imprint of Barry John, all swagger and cheek.
It rescued a match which was mind-numbingly dull for the most part and even the Wales coach Henry, who had described Thomas's performance against Samoa the week before as "adequate", was moved to describe the try as a gem. Praise indeed.
Henry had reason to be grateful because until Thomas sidestepped his way past three defenders on a 25-yard run to the line in the 56th minute, Wales were only leading 18-11.
Wales's two first-half tries had come from set moves with Thomas the pivot, but the USA dominated the opening 14 minutes of the second half only for an unforced error to halt their comeback.
Thomas, seeing the defence drift towards the midfield, sold a dummy, jinked off both feet and, with a swerve of the hips, glided his way to the line.
WALES: R Williams; A Bateman, M Taylor, S Gibbs, D James; A Thomas, R Howley; D Morris, G Jenkins, B Evans, I Gough, C Wyatt, N Budgett, C Charvis, S Quinnell.
UNITED STATES: Shuman; Naivalu, Eloff, Grobler, Delai; Wells, Dalzell; Clayton, Khasigian, Still, Gross, Farner, Hodges (capt), Fifita, Lyle.
Referee: I Ramage (Scotland).
