No. 14 USA Men’s National Team XVs will face No. 21 Canada at 10 pm ET at Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium in the final match prior to the EAgles departing for the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. The match will be broadcast live on florugby.com.Tickets are still available at usarugby.org/tickets.
Head Coach Gary Gold and his staff will finalize RWC selections on Sunday. Eric Fry, Joe Taufete’e, Olive Kilifi, and Mike Te’o return from injuries that kept them out of the Pacific Nations Cup. Others have one last chance to impress prior to final selections being made.
Captain Blaine Scully will earn his 50th test cap with the United States, an honor shared by only 10 other Eagles in U.S. history.
The team’s selections feature 529 cumulative test caps, a total greater than any of the three matches in the Pacific Nations Cup.
The Eagles will face Canada for the third time this calendar year, having won their first meeting on March 30-25 and their matchup on June 47-19.
Canada Head Coach Kingsley Jones named his 31 player roster for Rugby World Cup following the Pacific Nations Cup, and matches against Leinster, as well as British Columbia Selects.
USA and Canada have met 62 times in history where the Eagles have won 22 times, the Canadians have won 38 times and two matches have resulted in a draw.
HEAD COACH GARY GOLD
“This game on Saturday will be very beneficial for us in not only cementing months-long preparation but allowing us to make our final selections for Rugby World Cup. I am proud of the guys for how much work they’ve put in over these past several weeks as the heat and altitude in Colorado have provided the challenging setting we need to prepare at the highest level.
Canada is a very well-coached team and has a number of experienced players within the squad who will be a serious threat to us if we don’t execute with precision. We need to approach this game in the same way we will approach our pool in Japan in terms of our focus, our mindset and our ability to respond under pressure.”
RUGBY WORLD CUP USA TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT
The USA Men’s National Team XVs 31-player squad for Rugby World Cup Japan will be announced on Sunday, Sept 8 by 12 PM Pacific Time.
Squads
USA: 1 Eric Fry (Vannes, 44) 2 Joe Taufete’e (Worcester Warriors, 22) 3 Titi Lamositele (Saracens, 27) 4 Ben Landry (Ealing Trailfinders, 21) 5 Greg Peterson (Newcastle Falcons, 25) 6 Hanco Germishuys (Glendale Raptors, 16) 7 John Quill (Rugby United New York, 35) 8 Cam Dolan (NOLA Gold, 46) 9 Nate Augspurger (San Diego Legion, 23) 10 Will Magie (Unattached, 24) 11 Martin Iosefo (USA Sevens,5) 12 Paul Lasike (Harlequins, 15) 13 Marcel Brache (Western Force, 18) 14 Blaine Scully (C) (Unattached,49) 15 Will Hooley (Bedford Blues,11) 16. Dylan Fawsitt (Rugby United New York,11) 17. Olive Kilifi (Seattle Seawolves,26) 18. Paul Mullen (Unattached,13) 19. Nate Brakeley (Rugby United New York, 20) 20. Malon Al-Jiboori (Unattached, 4) 21. Shaun Davies (Glendale Raptors,24) 22. Bryce Campbell (London Irish,27) 23. Mike Te’o (San Diego Legion, 23)
Canada: 1 Hubert Buydens (NOLA Gold) 2 Eric Howard (NOLA Gold) 3 Matt Tierney (Pau, FR) 4 Evan Olmstead (Newcastle Falcons, UK) 5 Kyle Baillie (NOLA Gold) 6 Justin Blanchet (Bedford Blues, UK) 7 Lucas Rumball (Toronto Arrows) 8 Tyler Ardron (Capt., Chiefs, NZ) 9 Gordon McRorie (Calgary Hornets) 10 Peter Nelson (Ulster, IR) 11 DTH van der Merwe (Glasgow Warriors, UK) 12 Ciaran Hearn (London Irish, UK) 13 Ben LeSage (UBC Thunderbirds) 14 Jeff Hassler (Seattle Seawolves) 15 Patrick Parfrey (Toronto Arrows) 16 Andrew Quattrin (Toronto Arrows) 17 Djustice Sears-Duru (Seattle Seawolves) 18 Jake Ilnicki (Seattle Seawolves) 19 Mike Sheppard (Toronto Arrows) 20 Matt Heaton (Darlington Mowden Park, UK) 21 Jamie Mackenzie (Toronto Arrows) 22 Shane O’Leary (Nottingham, UK) 23 Nick Blevins (Calgary Hornets)
Other member of Canada RWC2019 Squad: Forwards: Benoît Pifféro (Blagnac, FR), Cole Keith (Toronto Arrows), Conor Keys (Rotherham Titans, UK), Luke Campbell (Toronto Arrows) Backs: Phil Mack (Seattle Seawolves), Conor Trainor (Nevers, FR), Taylor Paris (Castres, FR), Andrew Coe (Markam Irish/Canada Sevens)
MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM XVs STAFF
General Manager Dave Hodges
Head Coach Gary Gold
Assistant Coach, Attack Greg McWilliams
Assistant Coach, Set Piece Shawn Pittman
Assistant Coach, Defense Jaque Fourie
Strength & Conditioning Coach Huw Bevan
Performance Analyst Jimmy Harrison
Assistant S&C and Analyst Tom Kindley
Team Doctor Mark Sakr
Team Doctor Sam Akhavan
Head Athletic Trainer Kevin Ng
Athletic Trainer Kristen Douhan
Massage Therapist Daliah Hurwitz
Team Manager Chris Hanson
Assistant Team Manager Mark Drown
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