Eagle Men Named to Face Spain in La Vila Rugby Cup Final
USA Men's 15s Interim Head Coach Scott Lawrence has made a few changes to the gameday 23 as the Eagles close out their 2023 season with a chance for some hardware.
Captain Nate Brakeley will play in his final international test match as he has announced his retirement from the USA Eagles. Set to start in his 34th game, Brakeley started playing rugby at St. John's HS in Massachusetts and then went on to be an All American at Dartmouth. He made his USA debut in 2016 against Canada. USA v. Spain kicks off Saturday, Nov. 18, at 2pm ET, live on RugbyPass TV.
USA Races Past Brazil; Mano Scores 3 On Debut
The USA Men's 15s team showed well in defeating Brazil 48-3 Saturday in the Vila International Rugby Cup in Villajoyosa, Spain.
With the victory the Eagles play in the final Saturday, Nov. 18, at 2 pm ET against Spain after the Spanish defeated Canada 42-20.
The Eagles played some fast, open, entertaining rugby and ran out to an early lead. Debutant Joe Mano scored three tries in the first half.
“We’re pleased for Joe Mano in scoring a hat trick on debut. Eagle #569 showed up to play this evening," said USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence.
Eagles Picked to Face Brazil in Spain
Longtime Eagle Nate Brakeley will captain the USA in the opening match of the Vila International Rugby Cup in Alicante, Spain Saturday.
Brakeley, who played for St. John's HS in Massachusetts and Dartmouth College, will earn his 33rd cap and start in the second row for the Eagles. Nate Augspurger (Southside HS, University of Minnesota) starts at wing and will be vice captain. Head Coach Scott Lawrence has named a more heavily-USA-developed team than we saw earlier this year.
Eagle Women Get New Coach; Now What?
USA Rugby has hired former Australia Assistant Coach Sione Fukofuka as Had Coach of the USA Women's 15s Head Coach.
Over 90 candidates applied for this job.
Sione Fukofuka comes to USA Rugby having spent the last three years as an Assistant Coach with Rugby Australia and the Wallaroos, helping them to a record-high finish at Rugby World Cup 2021, and qualification to the inaugural WXV1. More than that, the Wallaroos are in many ways a program that parallels the USA in many ways. But on the high performance level Australia has been able to leverage their talent slightly better over the last few years/
Fukofuka will relocate to the United States in 2023, beginning with an eye on next year’s Pacific Four Series and Rugby World Cup qualification.
Follow the Pan-AM Games Rugby 7s on GRR
GRR's ongoing blog on the 2023 Pan-Am Games Rugby—check back for updates.
Follow the Pan-AM Games Rugby 7s on GRR
Women
USA 44 Jamaica 0
The first game of the entire competition and the USA were a little rusty. Not everything was perfect. But they dominated Jamaica, who didn't get out of their own half until they kicked off after the break. Jamaica didn't get much going offensively because the USA was so quick on the ball. No one on the USA played poorly and while there was a forward pass here or a high pass over someone's head there, when they relaxed the passes flowed.
How and When to Watch USA at Pan-Am Games Rugby
The Pan-Am Games kicks off Friday in Santiago, Chile, with two USA teams facing two somewhat distinct goals.
The USA Men's team is a group of mostly younger players and this tournament has been traditionally used as a testing ground for Eagle prospects.
Young USA Men's Team to Pan-Am Sevens
Or those returning to the fray. Several of the men's players showed well in the RugbyTown 7s. The college game remains a useful feeder for the USA 7s team, with Orrin Bizer, Ryan Santos, Jack Wendling, Noah Brown, Nick Hardrict, Sam Walsh, and Lucas Lacamp all recent grads from American college programs.
Italy Significantly Better Than USA in WXV2
The USA has ended the WXV 1-2 after a 30-8 loss to Italy in the final game.
That game had its own drama as Italy needed to win by 25 or more to win the WXV 2 trophy. They were held out by some dogged defense by the Eagles, allowing Scotland to celebrate their tournament victory.
For the USA, this was a case of chickens coming home to roost. Their kicking game was very poor and it put them on the back foot, or killed their territorial position, repeatedly.
It was a very windy day with a swirling wind in the high 20s (MPH) that largely favored the USA in the first half.
Improvements and a New Plan Fire Eagles for Italy WXV Game
On the way to getting back to the upper echelon the USA Women’s National 15s team faces a difficult opponent Saturday in the person of Italy.
What they want to do is show they’ve taken strides since the last time played (and lost to) Italy, which was 2022.
“The areas we’ve improved a lot are just being confident is a big one,” USA captain Kate Zackary told our correspondent Hanno van Vuuren. “We tried to go back to the basics and focus on the things we’re good at—in rugby you can add in all sorts of moves and starter plays and things like that
but if you can own your one-on-one tackles, your team structure, your attack plans, what your passing looks like, and you work off the ball, then you’ve got a really good team.”
So concentrating on those things have provided clarity. Certainly Head Coach Milton Haig wanted to see those things taken care of.
30 Players to Chula Vista for USA U18 7s Tryout
(USA Rugby Release)—USA Rugby is sending a boys U18 team to the World School 7s in New Zealand in December.
This team is going to be selected out of the players invited to a camp at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
Men’s High Performance Pathways Manager, Brenden Keane noted on the development tour, “I’m pleased to see the boys are returning to Global School 7s. The tournament has a strong rugby tradition and has produced some of the top sevens players in the world.”
On 40 Caps, COVID Epiphanies, and Dark Arts: Catie Benson
When Catie Benson arrived at Penn State she saw the list of rugby All Americans up on the wall on campus said told herself she wanted to be on that list.
She got there, and then saw the USA jerseys posted for all the Penn State capped players.
“I was like, dammit, I want a jersey on that wall,” Benson told GRR. Saturday she earns her 40th cap for the USA, a huge achievement for the Buffalo-area prop who only made her debut in 2015 and had COVID interrupt a chunk of that journey.
USA U18 Girls Picked to Play in World School 7s
USA Rugby will be sending a U18 girls team to the World School 7s in Auckland, New Zealand December 15-17.
That team has been selected.
USA Women Select to Face Italy in WXV2 Finale
USA Women's 15s Interim Head Coach Milton Haig announced his matchday 23 to meet Italy in the final WXV 2 match in Cape Town.
USA v. Italy kicks off at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 28, live on RugbyPass TV.
Haig has made several changes to Saturday’s roster. Hooker Paige Stathopoulos on the starting 15 with Kathryn Treder as a finisher. Keia Mae Sagapolu will get the start at tighthead prop. In the backs, Katana Howard starts at inside center while Summer Harris-Jones is named right wing. On the bench, Alivia Leatherman will have a chance to earn her first USA Eagles cap. Leatherman, a standout from Notre Dame College, played well with the USA Women’s U23s during the tour of Brazil this summer, earning an invite to the WXV camp.
WR Announces New Comp for US, Canada, Japan, Pacific Teams
World Rugby has confirmed the formation of a new competition for teams in the Pacific.
This new competition is familiar to those who know their rugby history as it is the same as the latter iteration of the old Pacific Rim championship, which ran from 1996 to 2001.
Scotland Outpaces USA in WXV2
Scotland defeated the USA 24-14 in Friday’s WXV match, overcoming the Americans having the lion’s share of the possession, especially in the second half.
In the opening 10 minutes the Eagles had the ball and good field position but couldn’t get any points out of it. They ran through the phases well enough and while Scotland is a fairly negative team—they creep offside and kill the ball fairly well—the USA had opportunities to break through. It was just that last pass that wouldn’t connect. Often is was just the gravity of the moment, as if the players involved were thinking “this is it!” and then over-cooked the pass or fumbled the catch.
Scotland, meanwhile, defended patiently and well, and when they got a free kick from a scrum at midfield, they struck.
Eagle Women Set to Face Scotland Friday
Interim Head Coach Milton Haig has made only two changea to the gameday 23 to face Scotland in the second match of the WXV 2.
The Eagles face Scotland Friday, Oct. 20, at 8AM ET, live on RugbyPass TV.
Meya Bizer, who left the opening game against Samoa with an injury, will cruelly be unable to take any further part in the event and Katana Howard was brought in to bolster the backline reserves. Howard replaces Bizer on the reserves bench. USA 7s player Autumn Czaplicki replaces Emily Henrich on the bench.
