RMA Podcast: Rugby Warrior Dave Hodges
Legendary USA player Dave Hodges sits down with Bruce McLane to talk about his career and what being an Eagle means.
In this compelling RuggaMatrix America podcast, Hodges talks about his time as a professional at Llanelli, how he embraced the game late, and his storied Eagle career.
Hodges captained the USA 28 times, which was a record until it was bypassed by Todd Clever. He played over 150 times for Llanelli Scarlets, where he earned both fans' Player of the Year and players' Player of the Year, and 54 times for the USA Men's National Team.
Danny Barrett Named New Executive Director of Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles Association has announced that former USA 7s and 15s star Danny Barrett has been selected as the new Executive Director of their Eagles Sevens support group.
As an experienced Eagle player, Barrett brings a personal level of experience to rugby enthusiasts and donors and he will guide their efforts to advance the cause of USA Eagles Sevens Rugby, both men and women.
Barrett, 33, is a veteran USA Eagle in both 7s and 15s, representing the USA 54 times on the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series as well as 13 times for the Eagles in 15s. He was named to the Sevens World Series 2016-17 season Dream Team.
USA U20s Finish World Trophy With Big Victory
The USA men’s U20s have taken 7th in the World Rugby U20 Trophy, beating Hong Kong 47-22.
The USA started off strongly, getting the better of a kick exchange and facing a knock-on to get a scrum at midfield. A misdirection play and then quick hands to the right wing looked promising, but it was a sidestep and direct running from Rand Santos (playing inside center for the first time in the competition) that set up the opening try.
Santos took a pass in a seemingly innocuous sequence and nicely beat his man and the next two before passing back inside to his Cal teammate Solomon Williams. The scrumhalf was following smartly and was clear in under the posts.
Changes for USA U20s as Besag Gets Senior Eagle Callup
As the USA U20 men finish uo the World U20 Trophy with Sunday morning's match vs Hong Kong, they will be without their captain.
Dom Besag, who was a standout for an exceptional De La Salle HS team in 2022 and followed that up with an excellent showing for Saint Mary's this past season as a freshman, has been asked to join the USA senior national team assembly about to convene in Romania. As a result, USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence asked USA U20 Head Coach Kyle Sumsion to sit Besag down for Sunday's U20 game.
And that is what has happened. Besag is the latest in a long list of young rugby players getting a look for the Eagles in their summer tour of Europe. And while the U20s have not found wins at the U20 Trophy, it's worth pointing out that this year they sit 2-3, with two of their losses by a total of three points. Their other loss was to Scotland.
Mistakes, Penalties Hurt USA U23s Against Canada
Canada’s U23s defeated the USA U23s 24-5 Wednesday night in Quincy, Mass. in a game that was certainly not particularly precise and leaves both teams with much to work on for this weekend’s finale.
The USA had much to be happy about. Despite the scoreline their defense was, for the most part, strong. The Americans hit very hard and made impressive tackles. The big breaks they did give up were more along the lines of a mis-alignment rather than a missed tackle.
Canada’s tries generally came from penalties and mistakes more than anything else.
Is U23 Border Battle The Start of RWC 2025 Push?
Could the push for the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup start today?
It's not an unreasonable question. As the USA Women's 15s program goes through its long-term coaching search and comes out of the 2021 World Cup (which was held in 2022), you've got to wonder if we're at a crossroads.
Women's college rugby has changed dramatically in the last several years, as NCAA varsity and D1 Elite programs have created daily training environments and paid overseas opportunities have made it easier to stay with the game at a high level. The hope was always that we'd see an influx of athletic, well-coached rugby players who love the game and raise the level.
Once they did that, we'd have a deeper pool of talent from which to form the Eagles.
We'd also have a talent pool that is more ready to compete as international rugby players.
Late Comeback Sees Zimbabwe U20s Race Past USA
Zimbabwe rode their pace and some USA mistakes to come back from 30-19 down to win the final pool game of the World U20 Trophy 38-37.
As has been the case through the tournament the USA started fairly well. Running with intent and hitting the breakdown hard the USA forced Zimbabwe into penalties that eventually led to a maul that drove inexorably over the line for Hayden McKay to touch down. Zimbabwe replied with a little show of the impressive speed their team has, but the USA defense hung in there long enough to turn the ball over and get on the front foot again.
USA U20 Men Looks to Target 5th at World Rugby Trophy
The USA U20s will face off with Zimbabwe at 1AM 3AM Tuesday morning, July 25 in the final pool round of the World Rugby Trophy.
The Junior Eagles are 0-2 after a close loss from Uruguay and a 40-13 loss to Scotland in which they led late in the first half.
While the USA won't be able to win the tournament—Tuesday's clash between Uruguay and Scotland will decide who makes the final from Pool A and the winner of Spain vs Samoa will decide the finalist from Pool B.
There will be one more game for everyone, however. The USA's target will be 5th. If they can beat Zimbabwe then they will meet the winner of Hong Kong and hosts Kenya in the playoff for 5th.
Scotland Overcomes Slim USA U20 Lead in World Trophy
Scotland defeated the USA U20s 40-13 Thursday at the World U20 Trophy, coming back from a small but real deficit to do so.
The USA team enjoyed a very positive
The game saw no scoring until the 18th minute as both teams worked hard to establish some dominance. But a penalty and a maul set up the opening try for Scotland—a nice move off the back of the maul and a missed tackle leading to a try for wing Finn Douglas. That was converted by captain and scrumhalf Ben Afshar.
The USA answered just a couple of minutes later—after a series of phases where they didn't really go anywhere, captain Dom Besag sliced through and pinned the last man before sending a pass to right wing Corbin Smith. High O'Kennedy slotted the difficult conversion and it was all tied up 7-7.
USA U20s Look Ahead to Scotland
The USA U20 men have named their squad to take on Scotland in Round 2 of the World U20 Trophy.
After a close loss to Uruguay, the Junior Eagles have their work cut out for them to win their pool.
This match will be shown live at 7AM ET on Kenya Rugby’s YouTube Channel>>
Caden Crist is back at hooker after being a late scratch from the opener due to an illness. As a result Hayden McKay, who filled in for Crist, is back at openside flanker. Head Coach Kyle Sumsion has switched up the second row with Henry Duke coming in for Dylan Fortune. In the back row Logan Ballinger replaces Cameron McAlpine.
In the backs, most of the threequarter line is unchanged, however Corbin Smith replaces Sosaia Pongi. Solomon Williams comes in at scrum half for Tommy Hannon.
RMA Podcast: USA Captain AJ MacGinty
Bruce McLane sits down with USA captain AJ MacGinty and they cover a LOT of ground in this excellent RuggaMatrix America Podcast.
MacGinty talks about his decision to come to America and push to be an Eagle. He discusses life as a professional, and talks candidly about losing out on the RWC 2023.
The flyhalf looks at the potential of American rugby and the positives, and also at some of the challenges.
Here are the visuals Bruce refers to in the podcast:
Plenty to Work On For USA U20s
Coming off Yesterday's 32-31 loss to Uruguay, the USA U20s have some work to do as they look ahead to pool games against Scotland and Zimbabwe.
For Head Coach Kyle Sumsion and the rest of the team certainly the job is to develop young players, but winning this tournament, and thus garnering entry into the U20 World Championships (recently won by France) would be an even tougher crucible in which to develop young players.
Now they need help. Because the final is a straight 1st in Pool A vs 1st in Pool B, the USA will now be hoping to get a three-way 2-1 tie and then win on bonus points or tiebreakers.
Sumsion, however, isn't looking that far ahead. He's concerned with Thursday's clash with Scotland.
USA U18s Hold Off Netherlands to Win Corendon Summer Tour
The USA U18s pulled out a very tense win over the Netherlands Saturday in Amsterdam to win the Corendon Summer Tour.
In a game where the USA
Final Standings:
So Close. Uruguay U20s Get By USA 33-31
Uruguay's U20s held on to defeat the USA U20s 33-31 in Round 1 of the World Rugby U20 Trophy Saturday thanks to a powerful combination of scrum, maul, defense, and kicking.
It was overall an impressive showing by the USA but too many errors, notably penalties in their own half, led to their demise.
USA U20s vs Uruguay U20s Saturday 7AM
The USA U20 Men get ready to meet Uruguay Saturday in the World Rugby U20 Trophy.
This is their fourth meeting on the World Rugby U20 Championship stage but the first in a pool match since 2011. USA have won the last two encounters but both matches were close, winning by a point and two points respectively.
Ben Cima scored 14 points when they last met in Zimbabwe in 2016, scoring one of his side's four tries as well as kicking two penalties and two conversions. The USA’s other try-scorers were captain Hanco Germishuys, Malon Al-Jiboori and Duncan van Schalkwyk.
Uruguay played with 13 men at one point during the second half when yellow cards to Martin Fitipaldo and Lorenzo Surraco overlapped and they finished the game with 14 when Federico Bruno was sent off in the last minute.
