NEWS

News Nov-8-2024

Eagles Land In Europe – Eager For Results In Important November Tour

Written by Will Hooley | Photo by Fernando Soares

Major League Rugby may be in its off-season, but there’s plenty of MLR talent taking to the world stage this November as the USA Eagles land in Europe for the November Tour.

Eagles’ head coach, Scott Lawrence, will be looking to finish the calendar year on a high after only amassing one win in six games during 2024. Competition has been tough along the way, such as Scotland in DC last July and the Pacific Nations Cup in Japan during September, but the Eagles now have winnable games this month to turn the tide and produce results.

Photo by Fernando Soares

Three matches in three weeks start this Saturday in Portugal at the Estádio Municipal Cidade de Coimbra as the Eagles seek revenge over Os Lobos after suffering a 42-20 defeat last year. They will then head to Chambéry in France to take on Tonga, a first meeting since the Eagles came up short against the Pacific Islanders at Rugby World Cup 2019 in Osaka, Japan. The campaign finishes in Madrid, Spain, as the USA aims to repeat their performance of last year when they defeated Los Leones 42-12.

Scott Lawrence has called up some fresh faces to the touring squad. Four players will look to earn their Men’s Eagles debut in Chicago Hounds’ Mark O’Keeffe & Noah Brown, San Diego Legion’s Shilo Klein and Anthem’s Erich Storti. Experience is added with Bristol Bears standout Premiership flyhalf, AJ MacGinty, who returns to the squad.

Photo by Fernando Soares

The USA Eagles sit 19th in World Rugby rankings, and with results this month, Scott Lawrence’s men could climb the ladder as Portugal (15th), Tonga (16th), and Spain (18th) all sit within reach. More importantly, the Eagles will be aiming to achieve success heading into an important 2025 where Rugby World Cup 2027 qualification begins.

Inside The Camp – Paddy Ryan (San Diego Legion)

Photo provided by USA Rugby

Hear from San Diego Legion back row star, Paddy Ryan, ‘inside the camp‘ ahead of the Eagles’ clash this Saturday against Portugal:

How is the feeling in camp heading into the November Tour?

It’s great to be back in camp with the rest of the boys. After the Pacific Nations Cup (PNC), we’ve spent the last five weeks training by ourselves or training with local teams to stay fit. I’ve been back in England myself for the last couple of weeks, getting ready for this Fall Tour.

We’ve come into camp in good shape and everyone’s excited to be back together. We’ve got some new faces in the squad, which is refreshing, creating competition for places that has certainly made for some great training sessions in preparation for Portugal this weekend.

We are developing as a team. We’ve reviewed the PNC, feeling we had a good game and result against Canada. We backed that up with some strong defensive performances against Japan and Fiji, something that we’ll look to build upon going into the next three Test matches. But we know we need to improve our attack and create more opportunities to score and execute when we have the opportunity. We’ll need to do this if we are going to get results this month.

Photo provided by USA Rugby

What challenges are you expecting from Portugal this Saturday?

I remember last year we let ourselves down in our performance against Portugal, losing 42-20. We came off the back of a great win in Romania and didn’t back it up. They have electric outside backs that tore us apart on the transition, coupled with a great offloading game. We know this Saturday we can expect much of the same. We’ll be looking to contain those threats out wide, shut down the space defensively and try to take away their offloading ability. We want to put our game on them and be braver in attack than we previously have been. We know we will have to take our opportunities and not defend all day.

How important are these three Test matches coming up?

These games are really important to us. We’re looking to build upon some of our positives from the PNC. It’s great to be able to spend some more time together as a group over the next three weeks. Obviously, our long-term goal is to qualify for the World Cup next year. So it’s all about building a squad that can qualify. These three games are really important to us as a team as we aim to get results.