They were calm in beating a superb Argentina, then managed expectations with a series of ho-hum outings against lesser sides.
It was a superb night, then, for Team GB, but they will wake on Sunday morning to be greeted by negative headlines in some quarters.
The move falls in line with a pattern established long ago by General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, of adding superb talent, then asking his coaching staff to make it all work.
Sinfield curled over a superb conversion, then a legally ferocious tackle by Gareth Ellis set the tone for the second half by forcing the error that led to Sinfield's clinching and drought-breaking try.
The superb Ben Arfa then curled in the second before again teeing up Cisse to drill past home goalkeeper Ben Foster.
As for the revolt, Beaudet noted "there are a lot of things that in theory can look absolutely superb and then in practice, it doesn't quite turn out the way you wanted it".
And, if Danny Graham had got any kind of touch to Routledge's superb ball, then the Swans striker would have almost certainly celebrated his fifth goal in as many games.
The Franco-Spanish squadron was shadowed by Superb, which then joined Saumarez at Gibraltar.
To ascertain these facts personally, the consumer would have to be a versatile scientist equipped with a superb laboratory, and then he would need to spend so much time testing goods that he would have little time to enjoy them.
"Jack Butland made some good saves and Cyrus Christie made a superb block and then they scored right at the end, so it was fortunate for us that we had that two-goal cushion".
He distinguished himself as a superb surgeon and then as a critical member of the Department of Quality Management.
