Eagles who dare
The USA Eagles face the Teros of Uruguay in the first leg of their World Cup qualifier at Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo on Saturday.
The second leg will be then following Saturday at Broward County Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.
USA coach, Eddie O’Sullivan, announced his squad for the qualifiers. He said: “we’ve got a very solid pool of players selected for these matches. Almost all of the players have been involved through the summer schedule. This will make it easier to for the team to gel given the limited preparation time before the first Test. Uruguay had some very solid performances throughout the summer against tough opposition in Russia, Romania and Scotland. They will be very keen to throw down a marker on home soil.”
Recently promoted to an 18th global ranking by the International Rugby Board (IRB), the U.S. Eagles have a 9-1 win-loss record over Uruguay over the past 20 years, and had to challenge the South American side for their last qualification into the Rugby World Cup four years ago, winning that series by a two-game point total of 75-20.
Even with that record and the solid mix of experience and youth in his pool, O’Sullivan is adamant that the Eagles cannot be complacent and will assemble his team in Florida on Sunday, 8 November, before departing for Montevideo the following Tuesday.
Uruguay have had a warm-up match against an Argentinian Invitation XV and were beaten 55-13.
Of the foreign-based players in the Eagles squad, Todd Clever has been playing Currie Cup rugby in South Africa, JJ Gagiano is South African born of a USA born mother and Mike Hercus is the USA born of Australian parents and educated in Australia.
USA squad:
Forwards: Todd Clever (Golden Lions, South Africa), Pat Danahy (Life University), JJ Gagiano (rugby Roma, Italy and University of Cape Town, South Africa), Nic Johnson (Denver Barbarians), Will Johnson (Oxford University, England), Brian McClenahan (Olympic Club), Mate Moeakiola (Pearl City), Alec Parker (Gentlemen of Aspen), Shawn Pittman (Bayside), Hayden Smith (Saracens, England), Jacob Sprague (Mystic River), Louis Stanfill (New York Athletic), Phil Thiel (Life University), John Van Der Giessen (Albi, France)
Backs: Cory Blair (Huntington Beach), Paul Emerick (Parma, Italy), Mike Hercus (Gold Coast Stingrays, Australia), Nese Malifa (Belmont Shore), Taku Ngwenya (Biarritz, France), Mike Petri (New York Athletic), Junior Sifa (Midleton), Roland Suniula (Pearl City), Kevin Swiryn (Old Puget Sound Beach), Alipate Tuilevuka (Provo Steelers), Tim Usasz (Nottingham, England), Chris Wyles (Saracens, England)
Considered but unavailable: Colin Hawley (California), Mike MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie, England), Salesi Sika (Castres, France)
Referee: Federico Pastrana (Argentina)
Assistant referees: Javier Mancuso (Argentina), Federico Cuesta (Argentina)
