The Nations Cup is part of World Rugby's global competition plan. This competition involves 12 Tier 2 nations:
Canada
Chile
USA
Samoa
Tonga
Uruguay
Georgia
Hong Kong
Portugal
Spain
Zimbabwe
Romania
The teams that play in one pool actually play the teams in the other pool. There is no knockout round.
USA Men's Head Coach Scott Lawrence has made a few changes to the Eagles lineup to face Zimbabwe Saturday in Charlotte.
Alex Maughan, who more often plays prop, will line up at hooker. Lance Williams comes in to make his Eagles debut at flanker. Makeen Alikhan comes in No. 8.
World Rugby's Nations Cup is formatted by having all the teams in Pool A playing the teams in Pool B, and vice-versa.
So that ends up, sometimes, having lopsided pools, and that's how the Nations Cup started.
The opening round of the Nations Cup produced not only a 4-1-1 day for Pool A, but also a lot of interesting and close games.
Despite giving up two early tries the USA managed to pull out a dramatic 30-29 over Portugal Saturday night in Denver.
This was the opening weekend of the Nations Cup with several very close games. This match ended up being the last one of the day, in part because lightning forced the kickoff to be delayed 45 minutes.
De La Salle HS
Saint Mary's (Rudy Scholz Finalist)
USA U20s (Captain)
USA Men's National 15s Team (Debut vs Georgia 2023 at age 20)
As a 17-year-old Spencer Huntley required a waiver to play for the USA U20s, an indication of how he was rated in the USA age-grade pathway. He got that waiver and impressed for the USA U20s, and then moved up to the USA U23s. He led the San Diego Mustangs to a national HS Club championship in 2024.
He also played in the SoCal single-school league for Cathedral Catholic.
Hope Rogers began playing rugby at age 16 in high school and continued to compete during her time at Penn State University. There, she won four National Championships, was crowned MVP on two occasions, was named to the USA Under-20s and earned Collegiate All-American honors for four years. Rogers was also an impressive discus player during her senior year in high school where she broke a school record and won Gold at Districts for the sport.
Mike played for Life College, Philly-Whitemarsh and played for the USA National 7s and 15s teams in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was also part of the Atlantis touring side, playing 7s for the team in several around the world.
