San Francisco 49ers secured an emphatic 27-7 victory over Super Bowl favorites Los Angeles Rams in front of a capacity crowd of over 100,000 at Melbourne Cricket Grounds.
It was the first ever NFL game in the Asia Pacific, the longest road trip for any NFL team to date in their nine international games planned in 2026.
49ers came to Australia one week ahead of the game while the Rams stayed in Australia just above 24 hours. Sean McVay’s side is the Super Bowl favorite due to signing defensive end Myles Garrett and bringing back NFL great Aaron Donald from retirement.
“I love when they [the Rams] came out and they were booing. We were out here for a week. We enjoyed the city. I don’t think you can fly 16 hours and be ready to play,” 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel told Australia’s Channel Seven.
Action was seen in the second quarter when Kyren Williams scored a touchdown to get the Rams a four-point lead after an early field goal by the 49ers.
But the 49ers responded well as Demarcus Robinson scored a touchdown just before half time, per BBC Sports.
More goals were scored as Mike Evans scored with a touchdown, and Samuel scored a touchdown. The 49ers won with a field goal at the end.
Brock Purdy threw 25 out of 34 passes for 205 yards, with three touchdown passes.
McVay added: “I make no excuses. Whether you want to say it’s about travel, whatever. We just weren’t good enough.
“I didn’t coach good enough, and we’ll look at it and we’ll move forward.”
