Coming off the squad’s first Pacific Four Series win in a heart-pumping battle with Australia, the USA Women’s 15s National Team is set to meet World #2 New Zealand this weekend.
This will be the third meeting with the Black Ferns under Head Coach Rob Cain. The USA, which jumped two spots in the World Rugby rankings to #5 after beating Australia 16-14 last weekend, will look to build on a good defensive effort with a bit more attack against a New Zealand attack that has put up over 100 points in the last two games.
USA vs New Zealand kicks off on Saturday, June 18 at 12AM ET (Friday night for Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones) and will be streaming live on World Rugby YouTube and the Pacific Four Series page of the World Rugby Website.
The Women’s Eagles and many players on this starting squad are familiar with the Black Ferns style of rugby, with more than half the match day 23 having played them on one or more occasions in recent years. Both matchups during Cain's time as Head Coach were on US soil—in Chicago 2018 at Soldier Field and during the 2019 World Rugby Super Series in San Diego. This time around, the Eagles will face the Black Ferns at the Northland Events Centre in Whangārei, which is exactly where the USA will open the Rugby World Cup, against Italy.
“We are looking forward to the challenge that New Zealand will present this Saturday," said Cain. "They have a very aggressive continuity game and have shown that they aren’t afraid to attack from all areas of the pitch. Last weekend against Australia we had real intent, both tactically and physically for around 55 minutes. This week we know how to get the result we want. We know we will have to not only do more of the good things from last week, but for a longer period of time. That’s our aspiration, that’s been our focus.
Having the opportunity to play New Zealand at home is an exciting proposition for us as a group, and one less first experience if this would happen at the Rugby World Cup. Thank you to the Eagles family and USA Rugby community for all your support these past few weeks, it makes all the difference to the players.”
| Pacific 4 | W | L | T | PF | PA | PD | BT | BL | Pts |
| New Zealand | 2 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 5 | 59 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Canada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 33 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| USA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 50 | -29 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Australia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 39 | -15 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
