Florida gets World Cup qualifier
United States Rugby officially announced that their World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay will be played at Broward County Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida, on November 21.
“Obviously it is imperative that we reach the World Cup in 2011,” US Eagles head coach Eddie O’Sullivan said.
“We allowed a great opportunity to slip away in July against Canada, but we have to put that disappointment behind us and now focus on getting a result against Uruguay.”
Even though the US Eagles beat Canada 12-6, on its home turf, on July 4, Canada won the point differential overall after its 41-18 win in Edmonton to clinch the Americas One spot in Pool A of the World Cup in New Zealand.
The US found itself playing with only 14 players for threequarters of the match and struggled to keep any sort of pattern.
Recently promoted to 18th on the International Rugby Board (IRB) rankings, the US Eagles face their second chance to qualify for the World Cup as they will first face Uruguay’s Los Teros on November 14 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The Eagles will assemble in Florida on Sunday, November 8, before departing for Montevideo the following Tuesday.
The teams will then meet again one week later in Florida.
The US has 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 World Cup four years ago, winning that series by a two-game point total of 75-20.
Even with that record, O’Sullivan is adamant that the Eagles cannot be complacent, saying: “Uruguay will be a difficult test for us to overcome. They have recently put in strong performances against Russia, Romania and Scotland. With limited preparation time available before the first test we will have to hit the ground running in Montevideo.”
A four-team play-off will be held to decide the 20th qualifying team in the World Cup.
This would include the loser of this two-game series (the third place Americas team) versus the second place Asian side in a semifinal, with the winner playing the victor of the European Three team against the African Two team to claim the final spot in the WC.
