“I don’t know what’s happened but we’ve played [against USA] seven times this season,” said Cora, a former player and Hong Kong fan favourite. “We’re 4-3 after this so we’re winning.

“It wasn’t a special match but for this season. Our goal was to beat the USA and to arrive at the World Cup [in San Francisco] a better team.”

Argentina secured an early 14-0 lead before USA pocket rocket Carlin Isles scored two tries to bring the teams within touching distance.

A nasty aerial incident in the subsequent kick-off saw Argentina’s German Schulz sin binned, infuriating USA coach Mike Friday who believed the card should have been red.

“I don’t know what it has to be to be a red card,” said Friday. “That’s blatantly taken out of the air – he’s lucky not to be on a stretcher.

“Playing Argentina is always a tight affair, and when you’re out of the main event and in the bridesmaid’s competition, it comes down to who can make the least mistakes. We were a bit loose at times.

“That’s sevens. If you’re slightly off, you bring another team into it and they took advantage,” he added.

Cora saw a whole other side to the challenge.

“For me, it wasn’t even a yellow card,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about referees after the match, but for me it was fair because both players jumped and fought for the ball in the air.”

Argentina captain Gaston Revol said rather than a rival, he saw USA as just another team.

“We like winning. We weren’t thinking about them, we were thinking about Argentina,” he said. “We defended very well in those last two minutes, especially when we went down to six men.”

“Maybe the players will [celebrate] but not me because we have to focus on Singapore,” he said. “We’ll do some analysis tonight because we have a long flight tomorrow.”