The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the first NFL regular-season game ever played in Australia. Kickoff was 10:35 a.m. Friday, September 11 in Melbourne — Thursday, September 10 in the United States — and the announced attendance was 100,021, which ABC News reports is the seventh-largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.
How the game went
Eddy Piñeiro opened the scoring with a 20-yard field goal. The Rams' only points came in the second quarter, when Kyren Williams ran in from five yards out — the first touchdown scored in an NFL game on Australian soil. San Francisco led 10-7 at halftime and scored the final 24 points of the game, closing with a 56-yard Piñeiro field goal.
Brock Purdy finished 25 of 34 for 205 yards and three touchdowns: a 39-yard strike to Demarcus Robinson, a two-yard pass to Mike Evans, and a 15-yarder to Deebo Samuel. Samuel also returned a kickoff 45 yards to set up Evans' touchdown catch over new Rams cornerback Jaylen Watson. Evans finished with six catches in his 49ers debut, and Christian McCaffrey ran 10 times for 68 yards.
Matthew Stafford went 15 of 25 for 155 yards with an interception, thrown to Renardo Green, and the Rams managed 290 total yards against a San Francisco defense that had both Fred Warner and Nick Bosa back from injury. Los Angeles reached fourth-and-goal at the San Francisco 1 and Stafford was stopped on a sneak, with Osa Odighizuwa credited for the stop. "Not enough good stuff on offense," Stafford said afterward.
Myles Garrett's Rams debut
Myles Garrett, who came to Los Angeles from Cleveland in a June trade for Jared Verse and a 2027 first-round pick, recorded zero tackles in his first game with the team and acknowledged a knee injury was limiting him. "Worst version of myself I've put out there," Garrett said. His arrival had been paired in the Rams' offseason with Aaron Donald's return on a one-year, $20 million deal.
Head coach Sean McVay rejected the idea that the trip explained the performance, saying he did not believe the travel plan was why the Rams "didn't play well enough." Mike Evans said the 49ers' early arrival helped: "We definitely got acclimated."
What the league got out of it
The NFL has staged regular-season games outside the United States since 2005, in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Spain. Australia had not been on that list until Friday, and the MCG — built for cricket and Australian rules football — holds roughly 100,000, making it Australia's largest stadium. The 100,021 figure means the league filled it.
Both teams now return home for Week 2. San Francisco hosts Miami on Sunday, September 20, and Los Angeles hosts the New York Giants on Monday, September 21. Uristocrat previewed the matchup in Games to Watch for September 10.
Source: ABC News
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