In a unique and special moment for rugby, the USA Women’s Falcons will travel to Life University this August to compete in a match against the 2026 National Champion Running Eagles for a first-of-its-kind game between national team and collegiate sides.
As a special precursor to the Falcons tour of Brazil, the USA development squad will hold training camp on the campus of Life University, punctuated by the marquee matchup on Mon, Aug 3 at 6pm ET. The match will be free to watch live on USA Rugby YouTube.
Admission to the match at Lupo Family Field can be purchased at the Life Running Eagles ticket page, and usa.rugby/tickets.
USA Women’s Falcons Head Coach Orlando Pulou said on the unique pre-tour match, “This match against Life University offers a unique and valuable opportunity, particularly through the connection and collaborative opportunity with a high-performance program that consistently contributes to the USA Rugby player pathways; past and present, including 7s and 15s. Programs like Life University are important talent pipelines that have produced and will continue to produce players for our Falcons pool. Notably, four current Falcons players on this year’s tour highlight the strength of this ongoing relationship.”
“Beyond the competitive element, this prep camp and match serve as an important precursor to our Brazil tour by enabling us to establish agreed-upon performance standards, develop and challenge processes for player development, and build essential team cohesion. We also look forward to the challenges that Life University and Head Coach Ryszard Chadwick will undoubtedly present, which will help us identify our strengths, pinpoint the biggest areas for improvement, and establish a brand and standard of rugby we can be proud of as Falcons.”
“We are grateful for this collaborative opportunity at our prep camp and excited to use it to set a strong foundation ahead of the tour.”
Life University Head Coach and Director of Women’s Rugby, Ryszard Chadwick added, “We are thrilled to host the USA Women’s Falcons at Life University for their pre-Brazil training camp. Welcoming the national team’s second side to our campus is a tremendous honor and a clear sign of the progress our program continues to make. For our younger players coming through the Life pathway, this is an outstanding opportunity. Playing and training against this caliber of international opposition will show them exactly what it takes to compete at the highest level. It gives us a valuable chance to measure where these athletes are in their journey toward national team selection and, most importantly, to create meaningful high-performance minutes that close the gap between development and performance.
We are excited to help build that bridge for the next generation of USA Rugby players. A special mention to those players selected from LIfe to join the Falcons on the USA tour, playing against their team mates in this scrimmage will be fun to watch, Lissa Sailsbury, Dorothy Vunipola, Bella Vogel, Angelina Mason. ”
The 2026 tour of Brazil will be the third consecutive year the Women’s Falcons have ventured to South America for a key development series that allows further match play for the USA Women’s Eagles extended player pool. With the addition of another high-quality fixture against the Life Running Eagles, who dominated their way to three national titles across college, club and 7s championships; this match offers another 80 minutes of high performance rugby and a unique matchup for viewers.
Details for the Women’s Falcons Brazil fixtures including dates, times and streaming will be confirmed once known.
