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RWC 2019 is under eight months away from kick-off. The showpiece tournament for rugby will feature twenty countries playing in Japan in four challenging pools of five. Only the best two from each will advance to the Quarter Finals.
In the second of a series of four articles Americas Rugby News (ARN) looks at the Road to RWC 2019. The Americas will be represented by Argentina, Canada, Uruguay, and the USA. In today’s installment ARN looks at the USA’s Road to the Rugby World Cup by looking at who the Eagles will be playing in 2019.
The Eagles will open their year on February 02. They are to do so in their first of two matches for the year in South America. The Eagles are to play in rounds one and two of the Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) away against Chile and the Argentina XV.
For rounds three, four, and five the USA will be afforded the luxury of home advantage. On February 23 the USA take on Brazil in Austin, Texas while in the final two rounds the Eagles play host to Uruguay and Canada in Seattle.
The tournament will conclude on March 08 while an identical fixture will be the next assignment. On July 27 the USA will play host to Canada in a Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) fixture at a yet to be confirmed location.
From there the Eagles will travel to Fiji to play test matches against Samoa and Japan on August 03 and 10 in Suva, Fiji. The PNC tournament falls World Rugby International window meaning European-Based Eagles are unlikely to feature.
All told there are eight fixtures thus far confirmed. Of them seven are capped internationals. A match yet to be officially confirmed will see the Eagles play a home game against Australia as part of their World Cup preparations. Additional matches will be added to give the Eagles matches later in August.
| DATE | FIXTURE | VENUE |
| February 2 | Chile vs USA | Santiago |
| February 9 | Argentina XV vs USA | Cipolletti |
| February 23 | USA vs Brazil | Austin |
| March 2 | USA vs Uruguay | Seattle |
| March 8 | USA vs Canada | Seattle |
| July 27 | USA vs Canada | TBA |
| August 3 | Samoa vs USA | Suva |
| August 10 | Japan vs USA | Suva |
| ??? | USA vs Australia | ??? |
At RWC 2019 itself the USA will compete in Pool C. The North Americans are the fourth seeds in their group. They are up against Argentina, England, France, and Tonga. It is the Pool of Death with three prior Semi Finalists, something never before seen during the pool stages of a RWC.
For the USA it is to be a vastly different pool to that of RWC 2015. In England 2015 the USA faced Japan, Samoa, Scotland, and South Africa. While it was a tough group the 2019 one is even more challenging.
The USA’s RWC 2019 match fixtures are displayed in the following table.
| DATE | FIXTURE | VENUE |
| September 26 | USA vs England | Kobe |
| October 2 | USA vs France | Fukuoka |
| October 9 | USA vs Argentina | Kumagaya |
| October 13 | USA vs Tonga | Hanazono |
