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• Deschamps 'not changing course' despite Italy defeat

  Didier Deschamps will "not change course" ahead of France's Nations League clash with Belgium despite defeat to Italy in their last match.

  France fell to a shock 3-1 loss in Paris in their opening Group A2 game at the Parc des Princes on Friday.

  Deschamps handed debuts to Bayern Munich's Michael Olise and Roma's Manu Kone, who came on as a substitute.

  The France manager, however, feels he must continue with the rotation against Belgium due to the structure of World Cup qualification.

  "The six Nations League matches must be used to introduce new players and distribute playing time," Deschamps told reporters.

  "If we had a different schedule and were playing World Cup qualifiers, I would not have chosen this course, that's for sure. But I chose it because I believe that we have to go through it. I'm not going to change course."

  Despite Bradley Barcola scoring France's fastest goal ever after just 12 seconds, Italy were able to come back and win comfortably.

  Prior to that meeting, France had not lost to Italy since June 2008. Deschamps will be hoping for an improved performance against Belgium, who his team beat 1-0 in the round of 16 at Euro 2024.

  "I can't be satisfied with the match against Italy, nor can the players. Tomorrow is another game, another context, a different team with the same obligation," he added.

  "The course I have taken is to give as much playing time to as many players as possible. Whatever the playing time, there is always pressure, you have to perform as well as possible."

  France face Belgium in the Nations League on Monday at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon.

• United States mentality issues to blame for Canada loss

  The United States must tackle some concerning mentality issues, which are to blame for their defeat to Canada.

  That is the view of interim coach Mikey Varas, who has few answers for solving the problem.

  USA were beaten 2-1 by Canada in Kansas City on Saturday, in their first game of the post-Gregg Berhalter era.

  It marked Canada's first victory on US soil in 67 years.

  And while Mauricio Pochettino reportedly waits in the wings to take over the Stars and Stripes, Varas hit out at the team's mentality.

  "The mentality is on the players. They know it," he told reporters.

  "We speak the truth to each other. I love those guys. But they know that mentality to fight, to run and to sacrifice, I can't do that for them. That's on them.

  "I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know. I felt that the training [sessions] were intense. They were aggressive.

  "But when the game comes, you gotta get going. And the players are the ones that bring that. Coaches can only get you so far from a mentality perspective."

  Varas did shoulder some of the blame, too, suggesting he may have tried to introduce too many new ideas, too soon.

  "I think on the ball, that's on me," he said.

  "I want to present some ideas to them and you just never know how it's going to translate from training to the game after three training sessions. And I asked a lot of them, you know, and if there's a goal, I mean, that's on me.

  "When you don't have a lot of time to work and you want to play a certain way it creates confusion.

  "Players are going to take responsibility for quality of action. The translation of the ideas wasn't clear enough because you shouldn't be static and you shouldn't pass the ball just to pass the ball. You're trying to be trying to accelerate play as quickly as you can."

• Australia 'fell off a cliff' in biggest-ever Test defeat

  Australia suffered their biggest-ever Test defeat on Saturday, as Argentina came from behind to win 67-27 in the Rugby Championship.

  And Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt said his team simply "fell off a cliff" after taking a 17-point lead.

  Having snapped an eight-game winless run in the Rugby Championship with their last-gasp victory over Argentina last week, Australia were looking to keep the momentum going.

  And they looked well set to do just that as tries from Carlo Tizzano and Andrew Kellaway propelled them into a 20-3 lead.

  But Mateo Carreras and Julian Montoya, who was playing for Argentina for the 100th time, dragged Argentina back into it and paved the way for Australia's capitulation after the break.

  Juan Martin Gonzalez, Joaquin Oviedo, Juan Cruz Mallia and Lucio Cinti all crossed for the Pumas in the second half, with Santiago Carreras' conversion condemning Australia to their record defeat.

   

  "To lead a Test match 20-3 and get run down in the manner which we did is really disappointing," said Schmidt.

  "We cannot let a game get away from us like it did and fall off a cliff.

  "We lost connection in our defensive line. We were forever chasing them.

  "We didn't put enough pressure on at the breakdown, so they were operating off a lightning-quick ball, and it's just too difficult to keep chasing a team on a hot day when they’ve got the ball and going forward."

  Australia's previous record Test defeat had come against South Africa in 1997.

  Matters do not get any easier for the Wallabies, who now face two matches against Schmidt's native New Zealand as they aim to avoid finishing bottom of the pile.

  Second-place Argentina, meanwhile, will tussle it out with Rugby Championship leaders South Africa.