Maybe it’s good for the national soul to be a back-bencher.

In their own personal Standard & Poor’s rating, the United States men’s rugby players have won exactly 2 matches and lost 15 in six previous Rugby World Cups.

The Eagles, as they are known, are not going to win the coming World Cup in New Zealand, either.

Fresh from not winning the soccer World Cups for men in 2010 and women in 2011, and, for that matter, the first two World Baseball Classics, in 2006 and 2009, the United States has a rugged schedule in the next Rugby World Cup, which opens Sept. 9.

Nevertheless, with the zest notable to rugby players on and off the field, the Americans are delighted to be heading to the home of the All Blacks, with their Maori in-your-face war dance, the Haka. The All Blacks are the favorites again.

The Eagles did not win a match in the most recent World Cup, in France in 2007, but they did produce the single most memorable play — a four-man burst of lateral passes (football, eat your heart out) that ended with a stunning dash by Takudzwa Ngwenya, their Zimbabwean-born sprinter, which is still very much a video staple.