via USA Rugby

Where do you start? Any of the All Blacks are worthy of keeping an eye on, but there are some interesting back stories to some of the selections.

A week after going toe to toe with England at Twickenham, the Eagles now head to the Emerald Isle, where they’ll take on Ireland at Lansdowne Road. The matchup will mark the second time our young American squad will be taking on a titan of World Rugby in a six-day span, but more importantly will be a true measuring stick for how far we’ve come as a true rugby nation.

As part of the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifier, Samoa and Tonga will meet in a pair of matches. The first will take place on July 10 and the second will be played on July 17.  Samoa took a 38-21 loss to the Maori All Blacks last weekend. Tonga took a very humbling 102-0 defeat at the hands of the powerful New Zealand All Blacks later that same day. Now the teams will face off against one another.

Head coach Gary Gold has made four changes to the starting XV with three new faces on the bench as the USA Men’s XVs National Team faces Ireland for the first time since 2018 on Saturday.

Some wise man once described the beautiful game of rugby as “a game in which 30 players chase a funny-shaped ball around a pitch, smashing into each other for 80 min. And at the end the All Blacks win.”