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John Mitchell has made five changes to his USA starting team to face Tonga in San Sebastián on Saturday, two enforced. Todd Clever missed out with concussion and Titi Lamositele has returned to Saracens. Blaine Scully will wear the captain’s armband in the final match of the year for the Eagles.
A shift in the front row sees Joe Taufete’e slide over to loosehead prop with James Hilterbrand in at hooker. Cam Dolan is recalled in the second row and there are new flankers in Samu Manoa and Tony Lamborn. The only change to the backline sees Marcel Brache handed his long-awaited debut in the midfield, replacing Bryce Campbell in the no12 jersey.
Pat Blair continues his conversion to hooker and joins the bench to fill in for Hilterbrand’s promotion, Angus MacLellan replaces Eric Fry who has returned to Vannes, and Mike Te’o takes over from Stephen Tomasin as reserve scrumhalf. Al McFarland is among the reserves with Manoa preferred on the flank.
The Eagles have dropped seven consecutive tests against Tonga dating back to their only win at San Francisco’s Boxer Stadium in 1999. Tonga took a 33-19 win at their last meeting in Toronto during the 2015 Pacific Nations Cup.
The match kicks off at 4pm local time, 10am Eastern, and will be broadcast live on The Rugby Channel.
USA EAGLES
1 Joe Taufete’e 2 James Hilterbrand 3 Chris Baumann 4 Cam Dolan 5 Nick Civetta 6 Samu Manoa 7 Tony Lamborn 8 Andrew Durutalo 9 Nate Augspurger 10 Will Holder 11 Martin Iosefo 12 Marcel Brache 13 Thretton Palamo 14 Blaine Scully (capt.) 15 Madison Hughes
16 Pat Blair 17 Angus MacLellan 18 Dino Waldren 19 Al McFarland 20 Langi Haupeakui 21 Mike Te’o 22 JP Eloff 23 Bryce Campbell
