USA Men's Head Coach Scott Lawrence has made a few changes to the Eagles lineup to face Zimbabwe Saturday in Charlotte.
Alex Maughan, who more often plays prop, will line up at hooker. Lance Williams comes in to make his Eagles debut at flanker. Makeen Alikhan comes in No. 8.
Conner Mooneyham who has impressed whenever he plays for the Eagles but has run into injury trouble, is back at wing.
"I think we got a we got a gut-check in terms of you know our mindset for the week last week was empty the tank, and I think we found out who we were," Lawrence said about last week's 30-29 win over Portugal. "And the players backed that up with their training again this week, bringing the level of intensity that we need to prepare at."
Lawrence expects a different type of opponent this week with a fast, unpredictable Zimbabwe.
"The things we're focused on this week are being clinical coming out of our own half, control and connection on defense, and then we really need to generate more speed of ball, and we'll we'll do that with depth."
The Eagles kick off against Zimbabwe at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte at 7:30PM ET. The game will be shown live in Paramount+.
