Nine changes for USA side to take on Samoa

Despite dispatching Canada with relative ease last weekend, coach Gary Gold has still made nine changes to his USA side to take on Samoa.

James Hilterbrand takes over from Dylan Fawsitt at hooker while lock Greg Peterson will replace the injured Nick Civetta. Civetta suffered a lower limb injury against Canada last week and his availability for the World Cup is now under a cloud of uncertainty.

Former Hurricanes flanker Tony Lamborn replaces Malon Al-Jiboori on the blindside flank.

In the backs, scrumhalf Ruben de Haas is in for Shaun Davies and center Paul Lasike returns from injury while Marcel Brache continues HIA protocol.

Nate Brakeley, Ben Pinkelman, Nate Augspurger and Will Magie have all been named in the reserves. Pinkelman is the sole debutant in the squad. Augspurger last played for the Eagles in June of 2018 and has spent the last several test windows recovering from injury.

USA: 15 Will Hooley, 14 Blaine Scully (c), 13 Bryce Campbell, 12 Paul Lasike, 11 Martin Iosefo, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Ruben de Haas, 8 Cam Dolan, 7 John Quill, 6 Tony Lamborn, 5 Gregory Peterson, 4 Ben Landry, 3 Paul Mullen, 2 James Hilterbrand, 1 Chance Wenglewski.

Reserves: 16 Dylan Fawsitt, 17 David Ainu’u, 18 Paddy Ryan, 19 Nate Brakeley, 20 Ben Pinkelman, 21 Nate Augspurger, 22 Will Magie, 23 Madison Hughes.