The US men’s rugby team plays Canada on Friday with World Cup qualification at stake – and with the American women’s own World Cup adventures in England, Ilona Maher and all, dominating global attention. Given the men’s failure to qualify for France 2023, and pressing need to secure a place at Australia 2027 ahead of USA 2031, Scott Lawrence’s Eagles may be happy to fly under the radar.
Certainly, Lawrence delivered a low-key statement ahead of kick-off in Calgary, the first of a Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) that also features Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
“We’re grateful to the tournament organizers providing this year’s competition in North America,” Lawrence said. “We are looking forward to seeing the growth within the team over the course of the tournament and performing well on home soil in September.”
Japan join the US and Canada in one PNC group – the Eagles play the Brave Blossoms in Sacramento on 6 September – while the Pacific islands form the other. Play-offs follow in Denver (14 September) and Salt Lake City (20 September). Fiji and Japan have already qualified for 2027. Of the other four teams, only the one that finishes lowest will not be assured of a place.
If the higher-ranked Japan win both their pool games, the winner of USA v Canada will qualify. The loser will get a second chance via a fifth-place play-off, most likely against Tonga. The loser of that game will head into yet more play-offs, of the sort that produced an Eagles nightmare last time round, beaten by Chile, squeezed out by Portugal.
Lawrence’s squad is 39-strong. The vast majority are employed at home in Major League Rugby – and thus subject to persistent uncertainty.
Four Eagles who had a club when the team lost 40-5 to England in DC in July no longer do so, after the demise of NOLA Gold (scrum-half Ruben de Haas) and Miami Sharks (prop Alec McDonnell, lock Rick Rose, flanker and captain Benja Bonasso). Five more players are with Anthem Rugby Carolina, the World Rugby and USA Rugby-backed team formed to foster American talent but with a two-year MLR record of played 32, lost … 32.
Canada have a better World Cup record than the US, having reached the quarter-finals in 1991, something the Eagles aspire to better under Lawrence’s Moonshot 2031 project. But Canada’s men also failed to qualify for France 2023, the same year their sole MLR team, Toronto Arrows, had to shut up shop.
Canada’s coach, Stephen Meehan, said: “We’re building a solid foundation in our efforts to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. We’ve invited a mix of experienced players and new talent, and we’re excited to see what each of them brings.”
Two French-based forwards, Evan Olmsted (Biarritz) and Tyler Ardron (Castres), offer much of that experience. Naming both to start, Meehan said: “The effort and understanding … shown in training has been very good. Competition for starting XV and reserves was high and this demonstrates the depth we’re building. It’s now time to execute what we’ve practiced.”
Nonetheless, a US team led from fly-half by AJ MacGinty, of Sale in the English Premiership, and with the gigantic Tonga Kofe, a former D1 football player now signed for Leicester, forbidding at tighthead prop, will start favourites for the win.
Lawrence said: “Going into this assembly our priorities were to create the right environment for the players to express themselves. We’ve concentrated on being clear about the simple things and then let the players fill in the gaps, let them trust their skill sets.”
All will do their best to push to the back of their minds the question of what US rugby might look like next year, or by kick-off in 2027. As MLR struggles, and as World Rugby looks to invest in the run-up to 2031, foreign interests circle.
Super Rugby is reportedly eyeing the west coast and the United Rugby Championship the east, seeking to plant teams presumably heavily staffed with foreign players. There is also the lingering question of R360, the Mike Tindall-fronted breakaway league.
This week, Nick Easter, the England No8 turned US defense and forwards coach, told the World Rugby owned Rugby Pass site: “It’s good that the URC has shown interest in trying to get a couple of teams into that league.
“For me, the best outcome for the URC would be the South African teams going back to join Super Rugby and create more of those fantastic games and not be a part of European rugby.
“Then keep the URC as Europe and the US teams because you need to grow the sport in North America, and that funding and exposure are needed over here.
“Of course, in terms of quality, the MLR is nowhere near the URC, and it may be that teams from the US would pull together their funds so they could get better players plus the top Eagles talent with the best coaches.
“The possibility I have been hearing over the last couple of weeks is that Super Rugby wants the California Legion, as they are on the Pacific Coast, and Chicago Hounds, having been approached, and probably the Free Jacks for the URC.”
The New England Free Jacks, based in Quincy, near Boston, have won three successive MLR titles. Where such moves would leave Old Glory DC, Houston SaberCats, Seattle Seawolves, Utah Warriors and Anthem RC remains, of course, to be seen.
“What you have with those two Eastern teams is the Irish influence,” Easter continued, “and you will get Irish supporters flying into Chicago and Boston for matches, along with ex-pats putting bums on seats. From the California side of things, there is a big Pacific Islands community that could be attracted to matches.”
Granted anonymity, one senior MLR stakeholder said he wished Easter would “focus on winning” the Canada game.
