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“USA Rugby is not currently on the IRB’s international tours schedule, which makes the task of creating an Eagles international fixture list extremely challenging,” said USA Rugby CEO and president of operations Nigel Melville.
“We were, however, able to secure international fixtures through our participation in the Churchill Cup, a challenging International tour to Japan and by hosting two extremely strong European professional club teams.
“In addition, we were able to schedule two fixtures against the England Counties for our developing players and the cross border NA4 games with Canada will give the new Eagles head coach Scott Johnson a great opportunity to assess the depth and quality of the players in our nation.”
The program, which actually started in December with Melville’s player selections from the men’s All-Star Championships in Florida, will kick off in May 2008 with an Elite Player Squad training camp in Chula Vista led by Johnson and his support staff. From that camp, the USA Select XV will play a two game series against the England Counties in New York City on June 6 and 9.
In between those domestic matches, the USA will start its Barclays Churchill Cup pool play in Canada against the England Saxons on June 7 in Ottawa, and again four days later versus Ireland A in Kingston.
The Eagles will then get 10 days of recovery time before playing in the Barclays Churchill Cup finals in Chicago on June 21.
The Eagles will then disperse for nearly two months, while given the opportunity to regroup into two developmental sides, the Hawks and the Falcons, which will be called to action for their first clash of the IRB North America 4 series on July 10 in Portland, OR.
Following that, the US sides will travel north for their cross border action against Canada’s East and West on July 15 and 19. All four teams will then get another 10-day break in action before reconvening in Denver for the semifinal and final rounds of the tournament held at Glendale’s Infinity Park on July 29 and August 2 respectively.
The Eagles regroup in early August to take on a French professional side, ASM Clermont Auvergne, on August 9 at Blakbaud Stadium in Charleston, SC. Following that match, the USA will then face Munster on August 22 at the Irish Cultural Center of New England, just outside Boston. Tickets to both of these matches will be available soon.
With the month of September open, the US is hoping to line up a match in early November on US soil, before taking off for a two-match feature in Japan on November 16 and 22.
Although they have not confirmed the venues yet, the Japan Rugby Union will hold the first match in either Nagoya or in Osaka and the second match in Tokyo.