Eagles back forward depth to counter Romania's physical threat

After a frustrating outing against Hong Kong China, which saw the Eagles win in the dying minutes, USA head coach Scott Lawrence has rung the changes in his forward pack ahead of their Round 5 Nations Cup match against Romania.

Stade Français loosehead prop Jack Iscaro returns to the side, adding additional power to the scrum. Kapeliele Pifeleti replaces Shilo Klein at hooker, bringing fresh energy to the front row. While the locking duo remains the same, Jason Damm and Nathan den Hoedt will be bolstered by Paddy Ryan at openside flanker and Nafitalai Ma’afu at number 8, replacing the injured Makeen Alikhan and Jamason Fa’anana Schultz.

With four matches in as many weeks, the changes are as much about building depth and keeping players fresh as they are about nullifying Romania’s set-piece quality. The Eagles’ 6-2 split also means that uncapped Rhyno Herbst will get his first opportunity in red, white and blue and his first rugby minutes in over four months.

“That’s the job; you’re always looking at the short term and long term at the same time,” Lawrence told the media in the press conference ahead of the Eagles’ match against Romania. “I think we watched Romania scrum and maul Tonga down the field last week, particularly late in the game. So that’s one piece of it. The other piece is we’re going to continue to build tight five depth… Our focus remains on performance today and building a stronger program for tomorrow.”

With Lawrence’s changes freshening up the forward pack, the Eagles are ready to take the Romanians head-on at their own game and are eager to set the physical tone early. “We want to just throw ourselves into it and really test Romania,” captain Jason Damm said ahead of the weekend’s match. “I think they clearly backed their maul quite a bit, so the sooner we can show them that that’s not going to happen, the better.”

The return of Jack Iscaro will be a boon for the Eagles, who will inevitably benefit from his experienced scrummaging. Since moving to France’s Top 14, Iscaro has pushed his way into a starting role, starting eight of the 16 matches he played for Stade last season, including the semi-finals against Montpellier. This season he has started four of the six games he has played for the Parisians, and he continues to excel at scrum time, even when facing some of the best props in the business, including the likes of Kyle Sinckler, Tevita Tatafu, and fellow American David Ainu’u.

“Jack brings a [certain] level of experience,” Lawrence said pre-match. “You want to get your pressure in through your loosehead when you can, and he’s a very dominant scrummager there. I think you combine him with Kapeliele Pifeleti, who’s also a big lump there at hooker, and you really have an opportunity to block off some of the boring and other things we’re seeing from Romania coming into the game.”

With Iscaro and Pifeleti adding European experience to the front row and Kaleb Geiger and Tonga Kofe showing incredible work rate in recent weeks, there is an emphasis on the American forward pack’s increased depth one year out from the Rugby World Cup.

With a stern test ahead, Damm and Lawrence are taking stock of the resilience the Eagles showed last week. “The team fought for each other there to finish,” Lawrence said about the performance against Hong Kong China. “And there were some positive set piece moments.”

Damm concurred, adding: “I said right after the game, but sometimes when you’re not having a performance you’re particularly happy with in the moment, maintaining that level of fight and belief and knowing that if we stick to our process we’re going to come back and put ourselves in a position to win the game.”

Coming off of a match in which Damm said the Eagles’ set-piece had “one of its best days of this year,” all eyes will be on which side can dominate the scrums, mauls and lineouts. However, Lawrence and Co. will be keen to continue expanding their attacking structures as the year winds down.

Speaking about the performance against Hong Kong China, Lawrence said, “I also think we created some variety through the middle third. That’s something we’ve been experimenting with over the last couple of months, and so you saw players seeing space and seeing opportunities that maybe they wouldn’t have seen two or three months ago, and they took their chances on it, and that’s what got us the entries… So I think we showed some good variety there on our run-kick game that maybe wasn’t there in the past.”

The match against Romania offers the Eagles the opportunity to extend the lead at the top of their pool. It is also notable for the number of firsts happening. As previously mentioned, Herbst will make his test debut as he returns to rugby for the first time in four months. Number 8 Nafi Ma’afu will make his first test start for the Eagles. Meanwhile, scrum-half Spencer Huntley will earn his first Eagles cap off the bench. Huntley is another USA Rugby development pathway success story. The young scrum-half captained the Eagles U20 side over the summer at the World Rugby U20 Junior Championship.

Eagles Starting XV: 1 Jack Iscaro, 2 Kapeliele Pifeleti, 3 Tonga Kofe, 4 Nathan den Hoedt, 5 Jason Damm (c), 6 Benjamin Bonasso, 7 Paddy Ryan, 8 Nafitalai Ma’afu, 9 Oscar Lennon, 10 Chris Hilsenbeck, 11 Noah Brown, 12 Dom Besag, 13 Tavite Lopeti, 14 Rufus McLean, 15 Perry Mayo

Replacements: 16 Kaleb Geiger, 17 Ezekiel Lindenmuth, 18 Charlie Abel, 19 Sam Golla, 20 Rhyno Herbst, 21 Marno Redelinghuys, 22 Spencer Huntley, 23 Tom Pittman