US road to 2031 Rugby World Cup starts with Pacific Nations challenge

THe Pacific Nations CupThe U.S. men’s tournament, which kicks off against Canada in Los Angeles on Saturday, is intended to improve the standards of play in tier-2 rugby nations. Next year’s PNC will decide qualification for the 2027 World Cup in Australia, but this year U.S. coach Scott Lawrence is also planning further ahead, for 2031 and the first Rugby World Cup on American soil.

“The way to build the team for the 2031 World Championships is to start the exposure now,” Lawrence said from the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, California, where the women’s sevens bronze medalist Ilona Maher and everyone else were making their own preparations.

That – and a list of absences due to injuries and European club contracts – helps explain why Lawrence’s squad includes five players who have not previously played for international football, including fly-half Rand Santos, a junior at Cal Berkeley and one of the two backs still in college, and the other Dom Besag, a two-cap centre from St Mary’s.

Lawrence says 2031 “probably won’t be my World Cup to coach but it is my contribution and so the only way to get Test experience is to give them Test experience. Those two guys have earned it. Dom was always going to be there and after seeing Rand up close in Scotland [in the World Trophy last month, as the US finished second]“We thought it was critical to get more American playmakers at No. 9 and No. 10, so we brought him in.”

Along with Irish-born Luke Carty, Santos is one of two fly-halfs travelling for matches against Canada or Japan and play-offs where Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are potential opponents.

Among the missing senior Eagles are AJ MacGinty, fly-half for Bristol in England, and David Ainu’u, tighthead prop for Toulouse in France. Lawrence says such uninjured absentees could have been picked but they have stayed with their clubs, better to be released next year with a World Cup place on the line.

Other players without a cap this time around are Pono Davis, tighthead for the Houston Sabercats in Major League Rugby, and Cory Daniel, flanker for Old Glory DC. Both are members of a much-discussed, often misunderstood breed: the crossover athlete.

David, from Hawaiicame from football to rugby, where he played defensive tackle for Southern Methodist University. Daniel, from Maryland, was an All-American wrestler in high school and competed nationally for the University of North Carolina. Both came from Glendale, Colorado, also known as RugbyTown USAan initiative that focuses on discovering crossover talent.

For those who constantly wonder what the US could do if they converted even a fraction of their college football talent to rugby, DavisAt 1.88 m tall, weighing 125 kg and with a head of black hair, he will be a particularly striking figure.

Lawrence says the U.S. coaches “have been watching him for about three years and eventually through hard work he got to the point where he started at Houston, as a tighthead, and that investment from Glendale is starting to pay off. We just have to know that it takes four or five years to get through it. So that’s part of the stuff I’m doing now, looking at betting for the next World Cup cycle.”

Wrestling is less known outside the US than football, but there is just as much talent to be found there.

“The wrestlers are fantastic,” Lawrence said. “They translate really well, especially the forwards and backs. The amount of work you have to do, the dark places you have to go to be a leading wrestler in our country, it really translates well. These guys are just great examples of conditioning. They don’t have a problem with the amount of work. They understand leverage on the breakdown and things like that. They fit in really well with rugby.”

Lawrence has also taken his team to some ‘dark spots’ in training, fitting in ‘three games of workload’ in one week, albeit without any clashes.

The Eagles have played and lost twice this summer: to Romania in Chicago and Scotland in Washington, D.C. They are favorites to beat Canada—not that Lawrence would say so, noting the strong Canadian contingent of the MLR champion New England Free Jacks—before a tough test in Japan. Then comes a semifinal, likely against Fiji, another tough but instructive task.

Fiji and Japan have qualified for Australia 2027, thanks to their results in France last year. The US missed out on that tournament after traumatic experiences against Chile and Portugal, but the path to the next World Cup is smoother. Four teams still qualify, with three spots available via the PNC. In 2025, beating Canada will likely be enough to secure a place Down Under in 2027.

WWith 2031 in mind, World Rugby is backing Anthem Rugby Carolina, a Charlotte-based MLR team that employs mostly Americans. Anthem was announced shortly before the 2024 season but has struggled, losing all 16 games. But like World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin and MLR CEO Nic Benson, Lawrence sees promising signs.

“The goals I set for Anthem this year were to produce 10 Americans who can start for Anthem next year and to grow one new player that I didn’t know about into the Eagles pool.”

The PNC traveling team consists of: Jake Turnbullan Anthem prop born in Australia to an American mother. Among the non-travelling reserves is Lucas Gramlick, a 6ft 8in, 290lb lock from California who played football and wrestled at school before switching to rugby at Glendale.

While Lawrence leads a team featuring two South African-born scrum-halves and an Irish-born fly-half, supported by a student, he notes the need for more American-trained players in key positions.

“If we want fly-halves and centres and nines to get playing time, we need to put them in the Anthem, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve brought in as many backline players and young emerging players as we can and put them together.”

World Rugby’s investment in national teams has worked for Fiji and Japan, and for Georgia, Portugal and other emerging teams. In the U.S., the Anthem project offers a twist on an age-old question: Should MLR focus on producing American talent, or should teams operating on thin commercial margins employ foreigners in the pursuit of success?

“We’ve got to keep our eye on the ball,” Lawrence said. “The goal is to produce test players. Not all of those players are going to be in Anthem all the time. There’s a salary cap and if someone goes international, I want them to earn really well. Part of Anthem is going to be development, almost catch and release, like, ‘Hey, let’s get you to a point where we’ve developed you enough, go somewhere else and be a starter.’ And that’s OK. That’s part of the process.”

• USA v Canada will be broadcast in the US on Peacock and in the United Kingdom on RugbyPassTVSaturday August 31, 9pm ET/2am BST