The USA got a training session in Sunday at HMS Temeraire Navy Rugby Club on Sunday, and many are thrilled just to be there.

This is the first Rugby World Cup for two-thirds of the squad, and the excitement is palpable.

"It’s the greatest achievement you can have in this sport to represent your country at a world cup and I’m excited to get going,” said lock/loose forward Cam Dolan, who started playing with the Naples Bears HS team in Florida and then went on to play for the USA age-grade teams, and Life University. "Having been lucky enough to play over here professionally at Northampton, [I know] the English fans are fantastic.” 

The Eagles will face Samoa on Sunday, September 20, with the kickoff at noon local time, which is 7am ET, 4am PT. The game will be live and free to view on Universal Sports. If you don’t get Universal Sports, it’s available on PPV online and on TV http://www.watchrwc2015.com.

The game itself is big one for the Eagles, and Dolan says as much as he remembers the 21-16 loss in San Jose in July. 

"I guess you could say there is a bit of revenge there. It’s not nice to lose to someone on home soil in such a close match, but this is a different tournament so it will be interesting to see what happens. We need to get off to a good start.

"It's hard to get together when you have so many of us playing all over the world, so that time together beforehand is priceless. We have had a tough competition in that time (Pacific Nations Cup) and being together for that long will help us going forward."