Narrated by USA Captains from every Rugby World Cup featuring the United States:

Ed Burlingham (1987), Brian Vizard (1991), Dan Lyle (1999), Dave Hodges (2003), Mike Hercus (2007), Todd Clever (2011) and Samu Manoa (2015 vs South Africa)

The No. 13 USA Men’s National Team XVs officially announce the 31-player squad for Rugby World Cup Japan 2019.

Head Coach Gary Gold has named 18 forwards and 13 backs with 10 players having previously competed in a Rugby World Cup (RWC). Three will look ahead to their third World Cup event including Captain Blaine Scully, Eric Fry and Thretton Palamo. Scully and Fry both competed in 2011 and 2015 while Palamo competed in 2007 as the youngest player in history to appear in a RWC event and 2015.

The group features three Rio 2016 Olympians including Nate Augspurger, Martin Iosefo and Ben Pinkelman. Pinkelman and Iosefo were both recently instrumental in leading the USA Men’s Sevens program to their most successful season in history.

More than half of the named squad began playing rugby at the youth level (middle school and earlier) with another 12 picking up the sport in high school and three doing so in college. A total of 29 players can be considered multi-sport athletes, having played in an official program for a sport other than rugby at one point in their athletic career.

The full squad features 677 cumulative test caps.

Head Coach Gary Gold said: “We’ve picked a pretty balanced team, we’ve gone with 18 forwards and 13 backs. We think that the attrition for this Rugby World Cup, especially our pool, is going to take it out of our forwards, so we’ve gone with an extra forward. We’ve got good depth in almost every position, I think we’re well covered. Where I think we are very lucky is that we’ve got quite a few guys who can play in multiple positions. From that point of view, we thought long and hard about those combinations and how we can best make up the combinations for the squad and what’s going to be a rather attritious pool.”

As the ninth edition of the quadrennial event, the World Cup will run from September 20 – November 2 with the Eagles drawn in Pool C against England (No. 3), France (No. 8), Argentina (No. 11) and Tonga (No. 15).

The United States men have appeared in all but one Rugby World Cup event (1995) with three total wins in the group stages including Japan in 1987 and 2003, as well as Russia in 2011.

In the four years since the last World Cup in England, the Eagles have improved from a 3-5 test match record in 2016 to a 9-1 test match record in 2018. The team will go into Japan 6-2 in test matches this year.

USA FORWARDS

NAME POSITION CLUB CAPS David Ainu’u Prop Toulouse 8 Malon Al-Jiboori Flanker Unattached 5 Nate Brakeley Lock Rugby United New York 21 Nick Civetta Lock Unattached 23 Cam Dolan No. 8 NOLA Gold 47 Dylan Fawsitt Hooker Rugby United New York 12 Eric Fry Prop Vannes 45 Hanco Germishuys Flanker Glendale Raptors 17 James Hilterbrand Hooker Manly Marlins 19 Olive Kilifi Prop Seattle Seawolves 27 Tony Lamborn Flanker Melbourne Rebels (AUS)

Hawke’s Bay Magpies (NZL) 19 Titi Lamositele Prop Saracens 28 Ben Landry Lock Ealing Trailfinders 22 Paul Mullen Prop Unattached 14 Gregory Peterson Lock Newcastle Falcons 26 Ben Pinkelman Flanker USA Sevens 1 John Quill Flanker Rugby United New York 36 Joseph Taufete’e Hooker Worcester Warriors 23

USA BACKS

NAME POSITION CLUB CAPS Blaine Scully (C) Wing Unattached 50 Nate Augspurger Scrumhalf / Wing San Diego Legion 24 Marcel Brache Center/Wing Western Force 19 Bryce Campbell Center London Irish 28 Shaun Davies Scrumhalf Glendale Raptors 25 Ruben De Haas Scrumhalf Free State Cheetahs 13 Will Hooley Fullback Bedford Blues 12 Martin Iosefo Wing USA Sevens 6 Paul Lasike Center Harlequins 16 AJ MacGinty Flyhalf Sale Sharks 24 Will Magie Flyhalf Unattached 25 Thretton Palamo Center Houston SaberCats 18 Mike Te’o Wing San Diego Legion 24

USA STAFF

General Manager | Dave Hodges

Head Coach | Gary Gold

Assistant Coach, Attack | Greg McWilliams

Assistant Coach, Set Piece | Shawn Pittman

Assistant Coach, Defense | Jaque Fourie

Strength & Conditioning Coach | Huw Bevan

Performance Analyst | Jimmy Harrison

Assistant S&C and Analyst | Tom Kindley

Team Doctor | Mark Sakr

Team Doctor | Sam Akhavan

Head Athletic Trainer | Kevin Ng

Athletic Trainer | Kristen Douhan

Massage Therapist | Daliah Hurwitz

Team Manager | Chris Hanson

Assistant Team Manager | Mark Drown

All media inquiries should be forwarded to Aalina Tabani at atabani@usa.rugby.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Rugby World Cup Japan 2019 will be broadcast LIVE across NBC Sports properties in the United States. A total 26 matches will be aired on NBCSN linear television network including all USA pool games and the Final on November 2nd. Fans can watch every game LIVE and on demand through the NBC Sports Gold package available for purchase here.

Live updates, match reports and other content will be available by following @USARugby on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Fans are encouraged to use the hashtags #EaglesUnited and #USMNTXVs across the tournament.

RUGBY WORLD CUP JAPAN 2019 POOL C SCHEDULE

vs England

September 26 | 6:45 AM ET

Kobe Misaki Stadium

WATCH | NBCSN + NBC Sports Gold

vs France

October 2 | 3:45 AM ET

Fukuoka Hakatanomori Stadium

WATCH | NBCSN + NBC Sports Gold

vs Argentina

October 9 | 12:45 AM ET

Kumagaya Rugby Stadium

WATCH | NBCSN + NBC Sports Gold

vs Tonga

October 13 | 1:45 AM ET

Hanazono Rugby Stadium

WATCH | NBCSN + NBC Sports Gold

VIEW FULL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE HERE