BUCHAREST, Romania - USA Men’s National Team head coach Gary Gold has named his match-day 23 to face No. 16 Romania this Saturday, Nov. 17 at 7AM ET, 6AM CT.

Watch LIVE on FloRugby

Injured players return to the lineup, with captain Blaine Scully, who left last week's win over Samoa early due to an injury to the face, returns and captains the squad again, albeit from the wing instead of fullback. John Quill, who was a late scratch last week, is back to match fitness and will start at flanker. Hanco Germishuys moves to the bench. 

Marcel Brache, who has been working hard to come back from injury has achieved his goal and will start at fulback.

Nick Boyer has been called in to back up Ruben de Haas at scrumhalf - Shaun Davies is still working his way back from a concussion. Gannon Moore, who started the last two games for the USA, is on the bench.

Still on an unbeaten run in test matches with a 9-1 overall record this year, the Men’s Eagles made history again when flyhalf Will Hooley’s penalty kick sealed the USA men’s first-ever victory over Samoa last Saturday. 

The win pushed the Samoans back to No. 17 in the World Rugby Rankings with Romania taking their place at No. 16. USA currently sits at No. 15, just .05 points shy of breaking the 14th place position held by Georgia. 

“There is no doubt the Samoans gave us a good fight in every minute of our test last week,” Gold said. “While we are happy to have achieved the result we did, we know there are many factors of our performance that must be tightened up against Romania this week. The Romanian crowd will be incredibly vocal for their home side and that in and of itself will present an added factor for us to overcome this Saturday.”

The match between these nations is for the Pershing Cup, named after former United States Army General John J. Pershing, who was one of only two US Army officers to be awarded the rank of General of the Armies. The other was George Washington. Pershing is also a national hero in Romania. He had a long relationship with Romanian artist Micheline Resco and also receive the Order of Michael The Brave from the Romanian people for his leadership in World War I.

In 1919, Pershing organized a military Olympics to mark the end of World War I, and Romania played the USA in a rugby game at that event. The USA won 21-0. The two teams also met in the 1924 Olympics (USA won 37-0) and in Moscow in 1988 (USA 17 Romania 7).

Romania's first victory over the USA was at the 1999 Rugby World Cup, when the Oaks came back from a 17-5 deficit to win 27-25. 

The USA and Romania have played for the Pershing Cup three times. In 2012 the Eagles won 34-3, and in 2014 the score was 27-17. Their last meeting was a Romanian win, 23-10 on November 12, 2016.

 en still sit on the better side of a 3-2 overall record with the chance to increase that number on Saturday.  

Where the Eagles claimed a historic win over Samoa last weekend, the Romanians achieved victory as well in a 36-6 defeat of Portugal. 

Ready as ever, the U.S. Men’s National Team will kickoff against Romania at 7 AM ET this Saturday, LIVE on FloRugby. 

U.S. Men's National Team Staff 

Head Coach | Gary Gold
Assistant Coach | Shawn Pittman
Assistant Coach | Greg McWilliams
Strength & Conditioning Coach | Huw Bevan
Performance Analyst | Jimmy Harrison

Head Athletic Trainer | Kevin Ng
Assistant Athletic Trainer | Kristen Douhan
Team Doctor | Richard Kim (Romania & Ireland)
Massage Therapist | Daliah Hurwitz (Samoa, Romania & Ireland)
Team Manager | Chris Hanson
Assistant Team Manager | Kevin McCorry