On Friday, USA and Portugal will meet in Dubai for a winner-takes-all Test match, the prize the last place at the Rugby World Cup in France next year. It is by some distance the most important game in the recent history of American rugby.
The US will host the men’s World Cup in 2031 and the women’s tournament two years later. World Rugby has placed a significant bet. Executives are of course neutral but without wishing any ill to the Portuguese, anyone seeking to plant rugby union in the American consciousness will be mighty relieved should the Eagles make it into Pool C with Australia, Wales, Fiji and Georgia.
When he spoke to reporters on Wednesday, the Eagles’ head coach refused to think past the next 80 minutes.
“It’s a big game,” Gary Gold said. “[But] 2031 is of absolutely no relevance to this now in Dubai. We’ve got a short-term goal. We want to get to the World Cup next year. We want to put a stake in the sand. That’s all our focus is on.
“There’s another World Cup to go and then 2031 … it’s really important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves. We focus on what we can control, which is our performance and our behavior on Friday night.”
The Americans have had an unusually long time together, through a training camp, games in South Africa and now two games done in Dubai. Kenya (68-14) and Hong Kong (49-7) were beaten, momentum duly gained. But Portugal did the same, beating Hong Kong 42-14 and Kenya 85-0. Os Lobos (the Wolves) are slightly ahead on points difference and tries.
AJ MacGinty, the Bristol Bears fly-half, will captain a US team missing the experienced centre Marcel Brache. The Hong Kong game, MacGinty said, “felt good on the pitch and when we are analyzing where we can take our game, what we need to work on in facing this Portugal side … We worked our socks off yesterday and poor Marcel injured his calf [but] the training session was really good. So the next man is ready to step up.”
The next man is Bryce Campbell, once of London Irish and now of the new Chicago Major League Rugby team, his former employer in Austin having followed Los Angeles out of the competition. A dispersal draft took place last week. Campbell has spoken of acknowledging such challenges at home but focusing on the job in Dubai.
Other Eagles could be forgiven for having one eye on home. Gold marveled at the “personal sacrifices guys have made, losing money to be here, staying away from families, they have never been away from home for this period of time. Vili [Helu, the Atlanta flanker] was saying to me just now it’s the longest time he’s ever been away from his wife. Paul Lasike [the Utah centre, once of Harlequins and before that the Chicago Bears], he’s got two baby twins at home, four children his wife has to look after.
“And you know, it hasn’t turned one bit from the intensity that AJ mentioned in training. I think people have to understand that these guys are not making thousands of pounds and living lives of luxury.”
The Eagles are in Dubai because they beat Canada but then lost to Uruguay and Chile. The home defeat by the latter in July was a horrible experience but MacGinty said the team was now in “a wholly new environment”.
“The big [difference] for me is the intensity level, the fitness. The guys are pushing themselves and there’s a step up I feel everybody’s made from the summer.”
Drawing heavily on the Lusitanos XV which competes in the Rugby Europe Super Cup, Portugal have impressed all year. It could be the Eagles’ best hope lies in taking the game to the Portuguese forwards. Gold has picked a heavy-duty front five, the front row including David Ainu’u of Toulouse at loosehead and Saracens’ Kapeli Pifeleti at hooker, the second row containing Greg Peterson of Newcastle, 6ft 8in and 273lbs of Australian-born, British-raised brawn.
There are 157 caps in that front five, a total boosted by the Houston prop Paul Mullen and Cam Dolan, a NOLA lock once of Cardiff and with 62 games for his country. Balancing that out, the back-rowers, Helu of Rugby ATL and Cory Daniel and Jamason Faʻanana-Schultz of Old Glory DC, have just 12 caps between them.
Asked what he expected from Portugal, Gold said: “This is an incredibly good team, very well coached by [the former France wing and coach] Patrice Lagisquet. To have players playing Pro D2 and even now Top 14 [in France] is a sign of how much this team has grown. We go into this game with a huge amount of respect.”
Noting strong Portuguese performances against Georgia, Argentina and Italy, Gold said he expected “a real threat playing wide, an attacking threat, moving the ball brilliantly. They’ve got a lot of confidence in their game plan. They’ve got some quite experienced players in the front row, they can produce very tough forwards. We know what a monumental task this is going to be.”
The US have missed only one World Cup, in 1995. MacGinty, Dolan and Peterson have all been to more World Cups than Portugal, whose sole appearance was in 2007. A Portuguese reporter asked if that made the Americans favourites.
“I definitely don’t think anybody’s favorite,” Gold said. “I think it’s 50-50 … it’s going to be a great Test match. It’s going to be a great spectacle. We are going to try to ask questions of Portugal and I know they’re going to do the same for us. It’s pretty evenly matched.”
USA v Portugal kicks-off at 10.30am ET on Friday, shown in the US on therugbynetwork.com
