{"id":84997,"date":"2025-08-22T12:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84997\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T12:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T12:35:10","slug":"eagles-men-seek-rugby-world-cup-qualification-amid-uncertainty-over-us-future-usa-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84997\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles men seek Rugby World Cup qualification amid uncertainty over US future | USA rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US men\u2019s rugby team plays Canada on Friday with World Cup qualification at stake \u2013 and with the American women\u2019s own World Cup adventures in England, Ilona Maher and all<\/a>, dominating global attention. Given the men\u2019s failure to qualify for France 2023, and pressing need to secure a place at Australia 2027 ahead of USA 2031, Scott Lawrence\u2019s Eagles may be happy to fly under the radar.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful to the tournament organizers providing this year\u2019s competition in North America,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cWe are looking forward to seeing the growth within the team over the course of the tournament and performing well on home soil in September.\u201d<\/p>\n

Japan join the US and Canada in one PNC group \u2013 the Eagles play the Brave Blossoms in Sacramento on 6 September \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, squeezed out by Portugal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawrence\u2019s squad is 39-strong. The vast majority are employed at home in Major League Rugby \u2013 and thus subject to persistent uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Four Eagles who had a club when the team lost 40-5 to England in DC in July<\/a> no longer do so, after the demise<\/a> 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 \u2026 32.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Moonshot 2031<\/a> project. But Canada\u2019s men also failed to qualify for France 2023, the same year their sole MLR team, Toronto Arrows, had to shut up shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s coach, Stephen Meehan, said: \u201cWe\u2019re building a solid foundation in our efforts to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. We\u2019ve invited a mix of experienced players and new talent, and we\u2019re excited to see what each of them brings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two French-based forwards, Evan Olmsted (Biarritz) and Tyler Ardron (Castres), offer much<\/a> of that experience. Naming both to start, Meehan said: \u201cThe effort and understanding \u2026 shown in training has been very good. Competition for starting XV and reserves was high and this demonstrates the depth we\u2019re building. It\u2019s now time to execute what we\u2019ve practiced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, a US team<\/a> led from fly-half by AJ MacGinty, of Sale in the English Premiership, and with the gigantic Tonga Kofe, a former D1 football player<\/a> now signed for Leicester, forbidding at tighthead prop, will start favourites for the win.<\/p>\n

Lawrence said: \u201cGoing into this assembly our priorities were to create the right environment for the players to express themselves. We\u2019ve concentrated on being clear about the simple things and then let the players fill in the gaps, let them trust their skill sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, Nick Easter, the England No8 turned US defense and forwards coach, told the World Rugby owned Rugby Pass site<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s good that the URC has shown interest in trying to get a couple of teams into that league.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you have with those two Eastern teams is the Irish influence,\u201d Easter continued, \u201cand 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted anonymity, one senior MLR stakeholder said he wished Easter would \u201cfocus on winning\u201d the Canada game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US men\u2019s rugby team plays Canada on Friday with World Cup qualification at stake \u2013 and with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-84997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}