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Former Junior All-American captain Tom Bliss will make his long-awaited test debut in round three of the Americas Rugby Championship when the Eagles host Chile in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. The scrumhalf, who was recently revealed as a PRO Rugby signing, is joined by two other newcomers in the run-on side. Long-time Eagles 7s standout Nick Edwards makes his first XVs test appearance on the wing, and 19-year-old centre Lorenzo Thomas gets an immediate call-up as a replacement for injured Lemoto Filikitonga after a hugely promising performance for the Junior All-Americans in the win over Canada last weekend.
Three further changes to the run-on side have been made by head coach John Mitchell from the senior side that also defeated Canada in Texas. Joseph Taufete’e swaps places with Mike Sosene-Feagai, JP Eloff earns his first start after a positive impression as a substitute at Dell Diamond, and the revolving talent of Mike Te’o moves to fullback after running out as a scrumhalf last week.
Another trio of firsts await from the bench. Pat Blair was the only player not to see action against Canada and hopes to earn his first cap this week alongside two new faces. Life prop Demecus Beach and Old Blue utility back Ryan Matyas join the team for the first time. This is the first exposure to international rugby for Beach while Matyas has previous experience on the HSBC Sevens Series.
This will be the first test match between the two countries since the home-and-away World Cup qualifiers in 2002. The Eagles won the opener 35-22 at Salt Lake City, but fell to Los Cóndores 21-13 in Santiago. The USA are currently on top of the ARC standings after the win over Canada and an opening round draw against the Argentina XV, while Chile defeated Brazil in the opener and fell heavily to their Argentine neighbors in round two.
The match kicks off at 6pm EST and will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
USA EAGLES
1 Eric Fry 2 Joseph Taufete’e 3 Chris Baumann 4 Brodie Orth 5 Ben Landry 6 Nate Brakeley 7 Todd Clever (capt.) 8 David Tameilau 9 Tom Bliss 10 JP Eloff 11 Nick Edwards 12 Chad London 13 Lorenzo Thomas 14 Luke Hume 15 Mike Te’o
16 Mike Sosene-Feagai 17 Olive Kilifi 18 Demecus Beach 19 Alec Gletzer 20 Pat Blair 21 Niku Kruger 22 Ryan Matyas 23 Jake Anderson
