USA Age-Grade Men Look to Overseas Trips
USA Age-Grade Men Look to Overseas Trips
The USA men's age-grade team selections will be announced very soon, but here's a quick look at what they will be doing.
U18s to South America
The U18 Boys will be returning to South America, where they toured last year. This tour seems to be a little more formal on the South American side, with two matches scheduled against regional academy teams in Argentina.
Argentina does not consistently field a U18 national team, in part because the country is so large and spread out. Regional academy teams, especially once you get out of Buenos Aires, seems to be the way to go. These will be very challenging and high-level games for the USA U18s. After those matches, the USA U18s will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay, to face the Uruguayan U18 national team.
As we understand it Uruguay's men's national team plays Romania on July 12, and the U18s match would be a curtain-raiser for that test match.
A squad of 28 from about 18 different teams, will make the trip under Head Coach Dominic Wareing. Several of those slated to be on the team were standouts at the recent Boys HS Rugby National Championships.
U19s a New Challenge
With no U20 World Trophy this year as World Rugby looks to expand their U20 championship for 2026, USA Rugby has opted to work with a U19 team that will form the core of the U20s to play in the new format in 2026. As a result, this USA U19 team will play in the RAN U19 Championships in Mexico July 9-12. The team will assemble in Mexico and train there before taking part in the tournament in Querétaro, which will include Mexico, Bermuda, Trinidad &Tobago, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica.
In previous years, the USA has been represented by a USA Rugby South team (basically the Panther Rugby Academy), but USA Rugby has opted for a full USA U19 team this time because they need the games. Panther Rugby should be praised for what they've done over the years, giving the USA a presence in this tournament every year and. From 2016 onward, the Panthers have seven straight finals (2020 and 2021 were not held due to COVID), and won five of those—their only losses were to Mexico in 2018 and 2019.
The USA U19 squad of 28 is about two-thirds college freshmen, with the rest being high-schoolers. There are a small number of players who are in high school or college overseas. Todd Thornley will be the Head Coach.
U23s Take a Trip
The USA Under 23s, which is essentially (but not exactly) a college All American team, will be touring South Africa this summer. They will play the Boland Cavaliers in Wellington in the Western Cape on July 8, and Maties (Stellenbosch) at historic Stellenbosch University on July 12.
The squad of 31 includes several Scholz Award candidates from this past season along with a couple of players who played for the USA U20s last year and are attending school overseas. In addition this team is a chance for young USA-eligible players who play overseas to get a look.
With this being a U23 team and not a collegiate team, there are players in other playing situations, such as the Anthen RC Academy, on the squad. Anthem is by no means the only MLR team providing players to this team. However, more than half this squad is USA collegiate players.
This is a big deal for USA Rugby as they are putting some serious effort behind it, including sending along a staff of eight.
Notably for all of these touring teams, a performance analyst will go with each team.
