The USA Men’s Eagles XVs will host the French Barbarians on July 1, 2022, at Aveva Stadium in Houston, Texas. This warmup match precedes the Rugby World Cup qualifying fixtures against Chile in the following weeks. Tickets will be available to the general public starting Friday, April 29 at 10 AM CDT through usa.rugby/tickets. Live stream coverage will be provided by FloRugby.
The French Barbarians are an invitational side of rugby players assembled to celebrate an open and exciting style of rugby. The club first started in 1979, with its inaugural match against Scotland in May 1980, and most recently beat Tonga in November 2021. The French Barbarians roster for the upcoming match has yet to be selected, but this will be the side’s first visit to North America since facing off with Canada in 2008, and first match against the United States in the club’s history.
Houston played host to the Men’s Eagles in 2018 during their historic win over Scotland and has also been included as a candidate host city for the proposed USA Rugby World Cup.
Men’s Eagles Head Coach, Gary Gold said: “Rugby World Cup qualification is our number one priority this summer and we’re pleased to have this contest ahead of our fixtures against Chile. The Barbarians play a famously creative style of rugby, and we expect this match to be a unique and fast-paced preparation for the guys. It’s been some time since we last assembled in the Fall, but confidence and communication are high amongst the squad as we parlay lessons from the Uruguay series into this upcoming round of qualification.”
Houston SaberCats President, JT Onyett added: “When we built this stadium, there was a desire to host the Eagles and bring the highest level of international rugby to our community. This marks the first of what we hope is many games with USA Rugby.”
Following their match against the French Barbarians, the Men’s Eagles will travel to Chile for the first of a home-and-away Rugby World Cup qualifier series, before returning home to Infinity Park in Glendale, CO on July 16 with the hope of securing qualification for the Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. Tickets to the July 16 match in Colorado are now available at usa.rugby/tickets.
Media credential applications for both events are available at usa.rugby/mediaservices.
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