The men’s collegiate All-Americans assemble this weekend and will train together as a large group before the teams are selected to play the Glendale Raptors.

Head coach James Willocks and his staff will pare down that group to a first team, second team, and third team after the camp.

“It’s a challenge,” said Willocks, referring to the scouting of players. “We’re working on a process that can work and we’re thrilled to work with the top collegiate players in the country. We absolutely expect players to come out of this who we don’t really know all that well. We’re fairly confident with the players out of D1, but we have some other guys and they will have to show they can compete, but we think they can.”

Willocks is still looking for decision-makers, scrummagers, and height — every year it’s the same. But the coach also said that every player will come away with something: feedback, something new, something to help him become a better player.

The timing of this camp is rough because the first three days coincide with USA Rugby Club 7s National Championships. Every year it seems more and more college players spend their summer playing 7s, and about 10 percent of the All-American campers will have had to pass up Club 7s Nationals to be in Glendale, or arrive late.

The camp itself will include two tries games on August 12, followed by a filtering of the squad down to 30 on Monday.

That 30 will face off with the Glendale Raptors on August 17.

Willocks has a tough job, in that this is partly an assembly to honor players who have played well, and partly a USA developmental assemble in which he is trying to find future Eagles. College programs continue to provide players to the USA men's national team, but with the advent of professional rugby in the USA, and more players attending academies overseas, this pathway is a little harder to follow than it was 10 years ago.

Mostly what that means is that for every Bryce Campbell who gets capped while still in college, there will be several others akin to Nick Civetta who need a few more years before they become Eagles.