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John Mitchell has named four debutants in his side for Saturday’s match against Romania. The USA Eagles Head Coach is set to give Bryce Campbell, Nick Civetta, Madison Hughes, and Martin Iosefo their first caps at the Stadionul Arcul de Triumf.
The team is to be captained by Todd Clever, a player left out of last year’s Rugby World Cup after a disagreement with the former Head Coach. Clever is now to lead the Eagles for the third time in Bucharest. His previous two outings saw the Eagles winning in 34-3 2012 and 27-17 2014.
Clever is to be the lone survivor from the 2014 fixture. He is surrounded by many new players to have come through under Mitchell or to have first been capped in 2015. The 2014 fixture was also extremely influenced by the New Zealand match in Chicago. In being played outside of the international window the European-based players were subsequently not able to face Romania.
On Saturday the USA will have a diverse front row. Titi Lamositele will join San Diego’s Joe Taufete’e and Wellington’s Chris Baumann. The lock combination will see Nate Brakeley and Nick Civetta starting, doing so with powerhouse Samu Manoa as a replacement.
Brakeley’s NYAC team-mate Al McFarland will all start. McFarland joins Clever and Andrew Durutalo in the back-row. They will be under the command of Nate Augspurger who starts at scrum-half.
Will Holder has been entrusted to direct traffic at flyhalf. His backline is extremely new. Only Blaine Scully and Thretton Palamo have been regulars for the Eagles. Iosefo will start on the left wing, Campbell at inside center, and Hughes at fullback.
USA
1 Titi Lamositele, 2 Joe Taufete’e, 3 Chris Baumann, 4 Nate Brakeley, 5 Nick Civetta, 6 Al McFarland, 7 Todd Clever (capt.), 8 Andrew Durutalo, 9 Nate Augspurger, 10 Will Holder, 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 Bryce Campbell, 13 Thretton Palamo, 14 Blaine Scully, 15 Madison Hughes
Replacements: 16 James Hilterbrand, 17 Eric Fry, 18 Dino Waldren, 19 Samu Manoa, 20 Langilangi Haupeakui, 21 Stephen Tomasin, 22 JP Eloff, 23 Matai Leuta
