Fixtures
Sun 20 Sep Samoa v USA, Brighton Community Stadium, noon BST, 7am EST
Sun 27 Sep Scotland v USA, Elland Road, 2.30pm BST, 9.30am EST
Weds 7 Oct South Africa v USA, Olympic Stadium, 4.45pm BST, 11.45am EST
Sun 11 Oct USA v Japan, Kingsholm Stadium, 8pm BST, 3pm EST
Odds to win World Cup
2500-1
Coach
Mike Tolkin
Captain
Chris Wyles
As the US Eagles completed an encouraging World Cup buildup in which they stayed together for two months, achieved the national necessity of beating Canada twice and briefly battered and rattled Australia, they were dealt a resounding blow. Scott LaValla, their experienced Stade Français back-rower, was out with a fractured elbow.
However, in the back five of the pack, the coach, Mike Tolkin, has deepened his pool. LaValla’s replacement, Seattle’s Matt Trouville, is as raw as two other home-based amateurs, New York Athletic Club’s John Quill and Al McFarland. But the Eagles also have three big locks: Saracens’ sometime New York Jets tight end, Hayden Smith, Greg Peterson of Glasgow and Louis Stanfill, a lovably skew-whiff giant who could start a fight in an empty room.
In the back row, the world-class Samu Manoa aside, there is also a handy No8‑cum‑lock, Cam Dolan of the Cardiff Blues, and two mobile back-rowers Danny Barrett and Andrew Durutolo, rising stars in sevens now proving themselves in 15s. The loss of LaValla and the longtime captain Todd Clever – dropped after missing team meetings, reportedly – is not good but it is not the torpedo to the hull it would once have been.
On the other hand, it does not really matter what miracles such locks, flankers and No8s can perform. The team’s front row is weak. Tolkin has stacked his deck 18-13, forwards over backs, and within that picked six props. (And only two hookers, Wales and Wallabies fans.)
But not one of those props, not even the 37-year-old giant Matekitonga Moeakiola – a try-scorer against England in 2007 – has shown he can anchor the scrum, let alone get it on the front foot. Eric Fry and Titi Lamositele took another shunting in Chicago last weekend. The hookers Zach Fenoglio and Phil Thiel are talented but short on top-level play.
Much has also been made of the squad’s lack of World Cup experience – only 11 of the 31 players have been here before. And yet the Eagles are optimistic they can take one win from Pool B, or two, or even three.
Is such optimism at all tainted by realism? Yes. Anyone in the camp will admit the South Africa game is one to put down to inexperience, by way of offering up the second string, crossing all crossable parts of the anatomy and hoping. And they know a second-string Samoa beat the Eagles in June. And last year, shaky old Scotland came away from Houston with a surprisingly comfortable win.
But Japan have been beaten this year and the Eagles have come on in leaps, bounds and resounding blows of their own. Witness the defensive effort and attacking brio that kept a reasonably strong Australia team to 14-10 at the break. It is conceivable, with only half a squint, that if the Eagles play at the top of their game and all their opponents who are not the Boks have a stinker … the last eight may just beckon.
There are of course caveats, not least the need for a squad containing semi‑professionals and amateurs to perform in three Test matches so close together. Also, consider the Australia game again. Matt Giteau and co may have been knocked about a bit at Soldier Field but they still scored seven good tries.
The Eagles defence is naive. For the first Wallaby score, the highly promising Irish-born fly-half AJ MacGinty – the only out-and-out No10 in the squad – rushed up too soon. Bernard Foley stepped inside him and sauntered to the line, stroking his pencil moustache. The centre Seamus Kelly– a product like Tolkin and the 54-cap scrum-half Mike Petri of Xavier high school in New York City– sometimes missed his man. It was not through weakness; it was through trying too hard to knock him into next week.
Both MacGinty and Kelly play for American club sides, on park pitches where errors are not always costly. Such eagerness translates to attack. Passes can be forced, lines of running squandered.
Still, this is certainly the best-prepared Eagles squad in World Cup history. It is also arguably the most talented: in the backs, professionals such as the captain, Chris Wyles of Saracens, the Cardiff Californian Blaine Scully and Taku Ngwenya of Biarritz are joined by that fascinating sprinkling from sevens.
The Eagles’ short game surged last season, winning in London and strolling past Canada to qualify for the Rio Olympics. As well as Barrett and Durutolo – the latter seemingly a lock-in as the No7 fetcher – the utility back Folau Niua offers a nuggety kind of variety, usually deployed from the bench. Brett Thompson, once of Edinburgh, has pace.
The tall wing Zack Test, meanwhile, is a former Oregon wide receiver who is a regular on Sevens World Series dream teams and was a try-scorer in the warm-up against Harlequins. Two other football players – the running back and “fastest man in rugby” Carlin Isles and the receiver Perry Baker– have stayed with the USA Sevens in San Diego. But even without them, the fruits of Olympic inclusion are showing.
USA’s 31-man World Cup squad
Props Chris Baumann (Santa Monica), Eric Fry (Newcastle Falcons), Olive Kilifi (Seattle Saracens), Titi Lamositele (Saracens) Joseph Taufete’e (Belmont Shore), Matekitonga Moeakiola (Castenet).
Hookers Zach Fenoglio (Glendale Raptors), Phil Thiel (Life University).
Locks Cam Dolan (Cardiff Blues), Greg Peterson (Glasgow), Hayden Smith (Saracens), Louis Stanfill (Seattle Saracens).
Back-rows Danny Barrett (USA Sevens), Andrew Durutalo (USA Sevens), Alastair McFarland (NYAC), John Quill (NYAC), Samu Manoa (Toulon), Matt Trouville (Seattle Saracens).
Scrum-halves Niku Kruger (Glendale Raptors), Mike Petri (NYAC).
Fly-halves AJ MacGinty (Life University), Shalom Suniula (Seattle Saracens).
Centres Seamus Kelly (SFGG), Folau Niua (USA Sevens), Thretton Palamo (London Welsh), Andrew Suniula (CSM Bucuresti).
Wings Takudzwa Ngwenya (Biarritz), Blaine Scully (Cardiff Blues), Zack Test (USA Sevens), Brett Thompson (USA Sevens).
Full-backs Chris Wyles (Saracens, capt).
