Georgia Test Offers Big Chance for Newer Players

11.08.2025

Nafi Ma'afu's callup to the USA was celebrated by his French club, Montauban, on social media.

Perhaps one of those most telling statements this weekend from USA Head Coach Scott Lawrence was this:

"There are 18 test matches until the next World Cup."

Simple, but almost sobering. Eighteen seems like a lot, but in nine days it will be 16. Each game is precious for various reasons—winning, building to that World Cup, developing players.

Sometimes you can't do all of those at once.

This November, because the Eagles beat Samoa and qualified for Australia 2027, they have the luxury of working on the building bit. But the winning part is never far away. World Rugby rankings at the end of this year will determine World Cup seeds. Beating Georgia and Romania will help that.

Today against Georgia, Lawrence fields a team with experiecne but he is now folding in some newer faces.

Brandon Harvey was a standout for the Charlotte Tigers as they built a high school rugby juggernaut in the late 2010s, Harvey went on to play for Cardiff Met.

At 6-6 with significant mobility and rugby understanding, he has been on the edge of the Eagles for a while but injury kept him on the back burner.

Nafi Ma'afu came to GRR's attention with the HS All Americans nine years ago (Nafe Maafu article from 2016>>) as a lock who was fast and elusive. He still is. The Tempe HS product has been playing professionally in France and a couple of years ago when GRR wanted to do a follow-up article on him, saying, basically, that he should be in the Eagle mix, he demurred, saying he didn't think he was ready.

So, humble, too.

Add to those names Tevita Naqali, who has been capped before but is getting his first start, Michael Baska who gets another shot, and the likes of Christian Poidevin , Peyton Telea Ilalio, Tonga Kofe, Marno Redelinghuys, and Makeen Alikhan, who all have only a handful of caps, and what you have is a prime chance for someone to take up the test rugby challenge.

There are others, including former St. Bonaventure captain Rick Rose who has been in two assemblies now but hasn't made the gameday roster yet.

" looking at building shared experiences, a number of shared experiences, ... amongst the players, moving into '27 and '31," Lawrence explained, adding that some players expected to help drive that retired over the last couple of years. "So we're back to rebuilding those shared experiences this year. If you go look at the team that finished 2024 and the team that started in July 2025., there's a number of changes. But the key thing here is we have a locked-in group, and we have a group behind them that, we're looking at pushing through. So, now it's about as many competitive experiences and shared experiences as we can get. There's 18 test matches until the next World Cup, but there are opportunities for us to build cohesion outside of that."

Shorter term, captain Jason Damm is high on the newer players.

"I think it's always exciting for guys to get their first hit-out and to be a part of these games," Damm said. "Nafi's a guy that … I think he's been meant to be my roommate on, like, two or three tours, but, you know, then I end up having one night with no roommate. He's come and slotted in well and expressing himself well in training.

"[He's] a natural fit with the guys, and Brandon's the same way. He was with us in Charlotte, working through injury. It's cool to be an older guy, a veteran leader and sort of help these guys along. I can just be someone that they can rely on and get excited for the journey ahead of them."

New blood gets blooded on Saturday against Georgia.

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