KOBE, Japan — The 20 teams at the Rugby World Cup fall equally into two groups, defined by World Rugby as Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Tier 2 teams, which include second-tier and developing rugby nations like the United States and Canada, have been improving, but their matches Thursday against England and Italy, two traditional powers from Tier 1, showed that the gap between the two groups remains wide.

How wide? How about seven-tries-to-one wide?

England’s dominant forward pack pushed the Americans around all night — steamrollering through them, scampering past them, bulling over them — to score seven tries on the way to a 45-7 blowout in Kobe. In Fukuoka on Thursday afternoon, Italy scored seven tries and thrashed the Canadians, 48-7. Both North American teams escaped shutout losses only through a late try, but both were clearly overmatched.

“England was ruthless in the areas they thought they could exploit on us,” the American captain Blaine Scully said. At a postgame news conference he added, “The English demonstrated why they’re one of the best teams in the world.”