USA Men's National Team Coach John Mitchell has been getting a complete lesson in the difficulties of assembling a USA team of late.

As reported earlier in Goff Rugby Report, the Eagles are having to work around World Rugby Regulation 9 - the regulation that requires clubs to release players for international duty. With the USA v Maori All Blacks game falling outside the November test match window for World Rugby. As a result, some professional players won't be available for that game, or, as has happened in previous years, they might be made available if they get to return to their pro clubs during the other weekends in November.

All of that opens up spots for other players, and Mitchell told Goff Rugby Report that he will be using about 30 players during the three-game November series. 

"Regulation 9 is quite a challenging area for us," said Mitchell. "It doesn't really exist for the Maori team. We'll have everybody at some point during November, just not necessarily at the same time."

In addition, those players will come from all over. Mitchell is expected to call up several players from the USA Selects squad in training right now - maybe not all of them, but close to half. He is also expected to get a look at Marcel Brache, the US-born South African wing who has played a ton of Currie Cup and some Super Rugby. (Brache was first written about by This is American Rugby in 2012, but this would be his first USA camp.)

Also coming into the camp will be several 7s players. For them, said Mitchell, getting used to the more physical 15s game is always an adjustment, as is getting used to the length of the actual games.

"Sevens players can sometimes over-chase in 15s, so we have to work on staying within structure," said Mitchell. "But the guys who have been playing 15s all along have an easier transition."

What is a challenge for the coaching staff is the lack of consistency in player backgrounds. Mitchell will call upon players from 7s, Super Rugby, the Aviva Premiership, the Top 14 in France, the French Pro D2, the Pro 12 in the Celtic countries, domestic PRO players, domestic club players, and college players.

"There's a huge diversity in what the players are doing," said Mitchell. "You look at players like Nate Brakely, a great example of someone who is working a job as well as playing and setting such high standards for himself. We've got different levels and types of professionalism, and some collegiate boys. And all crom from different training types and levels, and all come from different strength and conditioning bases."

That is one of the reasons Mitchell overhauled the Strength & Conditioning program with the Eagles. Now he has Chris Brown - who started with USA Rugby working with the Men's 7s team, Alex Ross, a former San Diego State All American who went to New Zealand to further his athletic training career and is now back with USA Rugby, and Jon Hood, who also worked with the 7s team.

"With them we're able to monitor the strength and conditioning efforts of the players and try to get some consistency," said Mitchell.

Consistency seems to be the watchword of late.