Match Preview – USA vs Ireland

The USA begin their June Internationals on Saturday. The Eagles will play their toughest match of the year, hosting Ireland in New Jersey. The fixture is to be the first of four internationals. The second will be vs Georgia and will be followed by Japan 2019 qualifiers vs Canada.

Outgoing Eagles Head Coach John Mitchell has named a young side. With just 115 combined test caps, the Eagles will have comparatively fewer than Ireland despite there being players missing to the Lions. Ireland’s players have 241 caps.

Mitchell has gone for Nate Augspurger as captain. The 27-year-old has 8 caps to his name, the most three recent of which were on the wing this year. He played in the position against Brazil, Canada and Chile.

Augspurger will partner AJ MacGinty in the halves. Marcel Brache will start outside MacGinty, giving the Eagles a rare Aviva Premiership – Super Rugby combination at 10 and 12. Ryan Matyas completed the mid-field, getting the nod over Bryce Campbell.

There is no Blaine Scully, Taku Ngwenya or Luke Hume for the Eagles. This sees Hawaiian Martin Iosefo joining Mike Te’o and Ben Cima in the back-three. Scully and Hume are injured while Ngwenya was not selected.

In the forwards there are also absentees. They include Todd Clever, Cam Dolan, Eric Fry, Titi Lamositele, Samu Manoa and Greg Peterson. This sees an inexperienced pack named. David Tameilau, Tony Lamborn and John Quill start as the back-rowers. Even fewer caps exist in the second-row which will see Nic Civetta and Nate Brakeley starting. Chris Baumann, Peter Malcolm and Ben Tarr complete the run-on lineup.

Late inclusion, Paddy Ryan will make his test debut from the bench if he receives game time. He is to be surrounded by familiar Eagles names including Shaun Davies, Andrew Durutalo, James Hilterbrand, Will Magie, Bryce Campbell and Joe Taufete’e.

Ireland also have an uncapped player. Ulster back Jacob Stockdale will earn his first cap on the left wing, playing opposite Te’o. He joins Tiernan O’Halloran and veteran Keith Earls in the back-three.

The rising start that is Garry Ringrose will play outside center. He is to partner Luke Marshall in the centers. Kieran Marmion and Joey Carbery complete the backline, playing scrum-half and fly half respectively.

The forwards see a number of familiar names, notably with Cian Healy and Deven Toner starting. The captaincy, though, will go to Leinster flanker Rhys Ruddock. Jack Conan and Josh van der Flier join Ruddock in the back-row.

South African Quinn Roux will partner Toner in locking the scrum. They are to play behind John Ryan, Niall Scannell and Healy. On the bench there is room for Munster star Simon Zebo. He will cover wing and fullback.

Saturday’s match is the be the 9th between the countries. Ireland has won all of the previous eight fixtures. The most recent match was in 2013. On that occasion the USA came close to completing an upset. Ultimately Ireland won 15-12 in Houston, Texas. That was in front of 20,181 supporters.

Ireland are 4th in the World Rankings, 13 places higher than the USA. Any win for the Eagles would see a significant changing of points. Completing a victory would be a monumental upset for the USA. Even without British & Irish Lions players, the Irish have a fully professional lineup and comparable stability to that of the Eagles. John Mitchell is leaving his job next month.

USA
1 Ben Tarr, 2 Peter Malcolm, 3 Chris Baumann, 4 Nate Brakeley, 5 Nick Civetta, 6 John Quill, 7 Tony Lamborn, 8 David Tameilau, 9 Nate Augspurger (capt.), 10 AJ MacGinty, 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 Marcel Brache, 13 Ryan Matyas, 14 Mike Te’o, 15 Ben Cima

Replacements: 16 James Hilterbrand, 17 Joe Taufete’e, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Matthew Jensen, 20 Andrew Durutalo, 21 Shaun Davies, 22 Will Magie, 23 Bryce Campbell

IRELAND
1 Cian Healy, 2 Niall Scannell, 3 John Ryan, 4 Quinn Roux, 5 Devin Toner, 6 Rhys Ruddock (capt.), 7 Josh van der Flier, 8 Jack Conan, 9 Kieran Marmion, 10 Joey Carbery, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 12 Luke Marshall, 13 Garry Ringrose, 14 Keith Earls, 15 Tiernan O’Halloran

Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 James Ryan, 20 Dan Leavy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Rory Scannell, 23 Simon Zebo

Date: Saturday, June 10
Venue: Red Bull Arena, Harrison
Kickoff: 16:00 local (13:00 PT, 14:00 MT)
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
Assistants: Federico Anselmi (UAR) & Chris Assmus (RC)
TMO: Neil Paterson (SRU)
Broadcasts: NBC Sports