The USA Men’s team that faces a relatively inexperienced Argentina XV Saturday at BBVA Compass Stadium is pretty inexperienced, too.

The entire squad boasts 219 total caps, which seems like a lot, but is less than ten per player, and almost three-quarters of those caps are taken up by four players - Eric Fry, Todd Clever, Taku Ngwenya, and Blaine Scully. The remaining 19 squadmembers have 56 caps, less than three per player. And, to drive that point into the ground, three players (Cam Dolan, Greg Peterson, and Olive Kilifi) have almost all of those remaining caps. So 16 of the players in the 23-man squad have, among them, ten caps.

Where did these guys come from? Well, as usual, it’s a mixed bag. Of note if the fact that in this group we see fewer Collegiate All Americans than usual. Only 11 of the 23 were MCAAs. Meanwhile, the list of players who played high school rugby in the USA, and even played at the national level, but didn’t play in college is growing. There are six such players on the squad for Saturday.

This is a positive development in that this is a function of better player tracking out of high school programs, especially for players of Polynesian descent. It also shows how mens’ clubs are becoming more willing to get players at 19 or 20 to play 1st-team club rugby. This used to never happen.

By our count, there are ten players who played for the High School All Americans, and seven who went on to the USA U20s (that number isn’t more because some years ago there was no USA U20s, and even when there was, some players were not released from their colleges to play).

By the way, the entire USA back row is made up of players who got their High Performance Start with the USA U19s or HSAA team. 

Thirteen players played high school rugby in the USA, representing 12 different HS/U19 programs (Belmont Shore is the only one to double-up). Seven different states are represented in this group, with California producing five players, and Texas two.

Twelve players played college rugby in this country, including four who either picked up the game in college, or moved to the USA to attend college, and so don’t get listed in our high school numbers.

Three players transferred (Ben Landry, Blaine Scully, Alec Gletzer), and so you could credit two different schools for their rugby success. Gletzer is a special case in that he attended Santa Barbara City College, a junior college, before transferring to Cal, which was sort of the plan all along. Should he get a cap, Gletzer will be SBCC’s first Eagle.

Cal will start two players and will have two players on the bench. Should the bench players run on, they will be Cal Eagles 46 and 47, and Cal will be able to boast 684 total caps. This is a remarkable achievement for one college, and the list includes several all-time great USA players, including all-time most-capped USA player Mike MacDonald.

Sevens - five players - Cam Dolan, Todd Clever, Taku Ngwenya, Blaine Scully, and Mike Te’o were capped in 7s before 15s.

Overseas. Four players - James Bird, Niku Kruger, Chad London, and Taku Ngwenya - qualify for the USA based on residency grounds. Three more - Greg Peterson, Mike Sosene-Feagai, and James Hilterbrand - qualify for the Eagles based on parentage or place of birth, but grew up overseas. Seven play rugby professionally overseas.

Notes: Todd Clever, if he plays in all five ARC games, will break MacDonald’s all-time caps record.