A Couple of Meaningful Changes as USA Women Get Set to Face Wales

09.24.2026Eagles

Cass Bargell, Bella Vogel, and Erica Coulibaly stand for the anthem.

Author: Alex Goff

The USA Women's National Team is back in the WXV competition with Saturday's test match against a rapidly improving Wales in Cardiff.

The Eagles kick off at 10AM ET on Saturday and the game will be live on Paramount+.

Head Coach Jack Hanratty has made just two changes from the lineup that came back from a 31-12 deficit to beat Ireland last week in Dublin. In the backline, Nina Mason earns her first-ever USA start, coming in at flyhalf, with her Life University classmate Bella Vogel sliding to inside center and Tessa Hann manning the reserves bench.

The other shift is to bring Katana Howard in for Kate Zachary on the bench, making it a 5-3 split for the reserves (five forwards, three backs).

All of this ramps up the playmaker quotient and expands the kicking ability for the USA in a game that may well depend on territory.

"I thought Nina had a fantastic debut," said Hanratty. "I was looking at myself going 50 minutes into a game, I'm putting three subs on, one of which is our captain, but also one of which getting their first cap to go on at flyhalf. But I thought the impact was incredible, like really incredible. So I can sit there and go, like, what an impact. But that's that was what the plan was."

Mason is a hard carrier compared to the slightly more shift Vogel, and she has quite the boot.

"She's incredibly professional off the field," added Hanratty. "It's like we've got two playmakers now, 10 and 12, which is really exciting. But actually, we've a third playmaker because Katana [Howard] is coming back into the squad, and she's on the bench, and that is because of the team profile that we want another kicker and we want another playmaker."

All of the changes, and all of the decisions to keep players, were the result of intense debate.

And Katana being so experienced, and I thought Katana was really important for us building up to Ireland, she she led the the scout team, and and it's great to to give her a reward for for because of because of her player profile. So that that was a change, but again, the debate was massive. And it's funny because like, do you change a winning team as well? Like, you could go lots of different places, but I think we could have picked three or four different lineups that we would have been excited to see on Saturday.

USA Women's Roster to Face Wales

"I said to the team that before Ireland it was the hardest debate that we had in terms of selection, and this was harder," said Hanratty. "Nobody didn't deserve to be on the squad. And then there's also this group of players that are like that we haven't named to our roster yet in these first two games that are champing at the bit. And there's a couple that we're sitting, debating, going 'when do we unleash them?', which I think is such a cool thing."

Co-captain Erica Jarrell-Searcy came off the bench with Mason and Alivia Leatherman at 50 minutes against Ireland to help spark the comebacl. The lock/flanker will once again be a reserve even with the leadership role (Georgie Perris-Redding is co-captain and starts at flanker).

"I always tell people, minutes are the same no matter what side of the half they're on," Jarrell Searcy said. "So just go out there and do a job. And, you know, it feels really good to be on the pitch during the winning whistle. So I don't see a lot of negatives with it, honestly. There's confidence and there's kind of a a joy to it that that it feels like a huge opportunity to go finish a match, and it's actually been sort of a really exciting, fun, motivating thing. "