Now into the Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup semifinal, the USA Men’s Eagles will face Fiji on Saturday, Sep 14 at 6:05 AM ET on Peacock.
With a final pool play loss to Japan in the rear view, the USA are into the knockout rounds with a chance to see the final next weekend. Japan will play Samoa in the second semifinal on Sunday in Tokyo. Saturday will be only the seventh time the USA and Fiji have met on the fifteens pitch, setting up a must-watch fixture from Tokyo. Veteran wing Nate Augspurger will take the Captain's role as Greg Peterson moves to the reserves for the semifinal.
When asked about focuses during the semifinal, Lawrence reiterated, “We're just looking for consistency and performance from the guys, which comes down to the three pillars we’ve made key components of our campaign; Discipline, so can you get into the pressure of a test match, physicality and to be brave with the ball.”
"Our game plan will stay the same, but we have a few things in place that that we can run when we have a lead, or when we're playing behind. We picked a strong bench again this week, I think that's important. We went from 18% productivity to 41% productivity from our bench between the Canada and Japan match, so we'll look to improve that again."
The USA and Fiji haven’t played each other for nearly a decade, the last contest in 2014 from another neutral site in Vannes, France. Lock Greg Peterson started that match, as the only player on this Eagles squad to face the Flying Fijians. New England Free Jacks Fullback, Toby Fricker will earn his first international cap as he starts in the 15 jersey, while Cal – Berkeley’s Rand Santos has the opportunity to debut from the bench. Santos has had a busy summer with USA Rugby, competing with the Men’s U20s through the World Rugby Trophy qualifiers and finals, before earning an invite to the National Team camp in August. Starting Flyhalf Luke Carty will sit out this match as Chris Mattina moves into the 10 position.
Augspurger said on the match with Fiji, “We had a lot of learnings from a Japanese team that was very good at the breakdown last week, so our ability and urgency to be over our own ball, and taking bodies out is going to be super important against the Fijians. Making good decisions around the breakdown is going to be a huge part of the game for us.”
| NAME | CLUB | CAPS |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Jack Iscaro | Old Glory DC | 9 |
| 2. Sean McNulty | Miami Sharks | 2 |
| 3. Paul Mullen | Utah Warriors | 38 |
| 4. Viliami Helu | San Diego Legion | 9 |
| 5. Jason Damm | RFCLA | 4 |
| 6. Paddy Ryan | San Diego Legion | 9 |
| 7. Cory Daniel | Old Glory DC | 5 |
| 8. Thomas Tu'avao | Utah Warriors | 8 |
| 9. Ruben De Haas | Cheetahs | 32 |
| 10. Chris Mattina | San Diego Legion | 5 |
| 11. Nate Augspurger | Chicago Hounds | 45 |
| 12. Tavite Lopeti | Seattle Seawolves | 14 |
| 13. Dominic Besag | Saint Mary's College | 4 |
| 14. Conner Mooneyham | Anthem RC | 3 |
| 15. Toby Fricker | New England Free Jacks | Debut |
| 16. Kapeli Pifeleti | Saracens | 13 |
| 17. Jake Turnbull | Anthem RC | 9 |
| 18. Pono Davis | Houston SaberCats | 1 |
| 19. Greg Peterson | San Diego Legion | 46 |
| 20. Tesimoni Tonga'uiha | NOLA Gold | 7 |
| 21. Bryce Campbell | Chicago Hounds | 46 |
| 22. Rand Santos | Univ. California - Berkeley | Debut |
| 23. JP Smith | Seattle Seawolves | 4 |
Scott Lawrence | Head Coach
Alama Ieremia | Backs and Attack Coach
Nick Easter | Forwards and Defense Coach
Blake Bradford | Scrum Coach
Alex Ross | Head of Athlete Performance
Jimmy Harrison | Head Analyst
Rodolfo Broggi | Athlete Performance
Michael Sheridan | Head Athletic Trainer
Ron Klingensmith | Assistant Athletic Trainer
Willie Berlanga | Sports Massage Therapist
Corey Wells | Team Doctor
Oscar Alvarez | Team Manager
Calder Cahill | Media Manager
USA vs Canada | 28-15 (W)
USA vs Japan | 24-41 (L)
USA vs Fiji | Sep, 14 6:05 AM ET
Watch Live on Peacock
