The USA Men’s 15s team doesn’t get much of a break between the Rugby World Cup and the new cycle.

That is why, in part, many are anxious to find out who the new Head Coach is. Word is that the coach will be named very, very soon, so that box will be checked off. Then, of course, there will be a new staff to assemble and plans to make.

Speaking of plans, the USA competitive schedule seems to be set now for the next four years. Here’s how it’s going to look:

February - March, Americas Rugby Championship

Now, remember, a competition called the ARC has been held in the fall the last four non-World Cup years, serving as a non-cap international competition for USA, Canada, and South American teams (and, one year, Tonga). This is a different ARC. This is a six-nation (not 6 Nations, because that would be copyright infringement) full-test tournament with the USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. 

The plan for the ARC is to still have some sort of fall non-test competition, because that remains valuable to players trying to get to their national teams. There’s also a desire to get women, and age-grade teams involved. I know, I know, we’ve heard that before, and then World Rugby says there’s no budget, or there’s no consensus on how to accomplish it. We’ll see.

 

June-July Tours

One or two Tier I teams will visit the USA and Canada. This remains a prime time of year for top teams to tour North America, and they like to do it. We should see a couple of national teams tour each year.

 

 

Fall

There should still be some sort of non-test ARC in the fall, and then in November we could well see yet another in-country fall test (similar to the USA v New Zealand and USA v Australia games of the last two years). Seeing as New Zealand is already playing Ireland at Soldier Field, a companion game to that clash would seem logical.

And then it’s on to the regular November tours (expect to see Romania involved again, as the USA and Romania have set up a 

The ARC (the new one), is held during a time when all professional players should be released by their pro teams. However, it’s unlikely USA Rugby will push for some of those players to be released. But it offers a tradeoff opportunity. Remember that in 2014 the Eagles played the All Blacks outside of the official November test match window. That meant that pro clubs didn’t have to release the Americans playing overseas. In the end they did in a tradeoff wherein those players returned to their clubs for the rest of the month.

This could happen again, with a game being played outside of the window in the fall of 2016. 

The Eagles could be looking at as many as 12 test-match-level games in 2016, the most since 2003. But while 2003 was a World Cup year, and the large number of games because of some unique circumstances, this new schedule could be the regular course of things for the foreseeable future.

 

What of the Pacific Nations Cup?

The PNC will continue to exist, in two forms. According to sources, Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji will play each other anyway, as has been their custom since the 1920s. In World Cup years, so the information we’ve gathered says, the PNC will then operate as it did in 2015, providing a nice RWC warmup competition for the six teams involved. 

 

So, with all of that in mind, here’s what could be the USA’s schedule for the next four years:

• 20 ARC test matches
• 9 summer test matches, of which three to six will be against Tier I competition, or maybe some pro clubs or something like that.
• 4 PNC games during World Cup years
• Anywhere from 9 to 12 fall matches, with as many as three in the USA
• Rugby World Cup qualifiers - 2 against Canada and, if needed, 2 more against probably Uruguay
• The 2019 Rugby World Cup, which should be four games

That would be 12 games a year, and only twice have the Eagles played more than nine, in 2003 (13), and 2015 (10). Of these games, about half could be on US soil.

 

One More ARC Dividend

The six nations involved won a discussion with World Rugby over referees, and will assign their own referees and assistant referees to the games. As the unions involved argued, how can they develop referees for the international stage if those referees don’t get the right experience? So this will be a chance for referees from all of the countries involved to get a game or two and build an international body of work.