The U.S. Hawks starting squad, headed by Chicago Lions coach Marty Wiggins, will feature a lot of familiar faces in the pack and draws off a bit of new blood in the back line.

Forwards that have international XV’s experience on the Hawks starting lineup include John Vitale, Chad Slaby, Brian Doyle, John Van der Giessen, and Mark Aylor, while Captain Mike Petri and Justin Boyd round out the two back line players with international caps.

“The whole idea is to get in a position to get the ball out to our back line. The backs just need opportunities and I think our pack will be able to provide those,” Wiggins said. “While a lot of these younger guys don’t necessarily have the NA4 experience, there is a lot of talent on both ends. And we’ve put a couple of systems into place which is a trickle down from the National Team structures. We’ve also placed a great emphasis on tactical replacements tomorrow as fresh legs will really make the difference later in the game.”
 
A similar situation holds true for the Falcons side, as they have decided to go with a strong, more experienced pack to balance out a bit of a less experienced back line.
 
Mate Moeakiola and Louis Stanfill both bring their Rugby World Cup experience to the table, while Captain Rikus Pretorius and Peter Dahl lack the international caps, but boast a lot of high level competition for the forwards
 
In the Falcons back line, Mose Timoteo leads the backs at scrumhalf, while fullback Jone Naqica helps add a bit of international experience to an otherwise young lineup.
 
Falcons Coach Ray Lehner explains his reasoning for the mixture: “We have three matches to play in a fairly short amount of time,” he said. “We tried to mix it up a bit, using a pretty experienced forwards lineup and a few newcomers in back line to hopefully balance it out.
 
“So far our strategy has been to keep it simple,” Lehner added. “We’ve had four training sessions with these guys before heading into our first game. There is a good core of guys that have played together on the Pacific Grizzlies, which we can use to our advantage, but really all I want to see in this first match is effort. I want everyone to play really hard. If we lack in effort, we will certainly lack every where else.”
 
USA Falcons Squad

15. Jone Naqica (San Francisco Golden Gate)
14. Tyson Meek (Denver Barbarians)
13. Luke Council (Cal Poly)
12. Gary Golding (UC-Berkeley)
11. Zachary Pangelinan (OMBAC)
10. Volney Rouse (SFGG)
9. Mose Timoteo (SFGG)
1. Mate Moeakiola (Pukekohe, NZ)
2. William Brazier (Old Blue)
3. Shawn Pittman (SFGG)
4. Jared Wolfgramm (Belmont Shore)
5. Louis Stanfill (UC-Berkeley)
6. Peter Dahl (Belmont Shore)
7. Rikus Pretorius (UC-Berkeley)
8. Naki Angilau (Park City Haggis)
Replacements
16. Mark Kernen (Belmont Shore)
17. Mone Laulaupeaalu (SFGG)
18. Jonathan Kollerer (Olympic Club)
19. Mark Litke (Old Puget Sound Beach)
20. Timothy Usasz (Nottingham)
21. Valenese Malifa (Belmont Shore)
22. Vaha Esikia (Las Vegas)
Head Coach: Ray Lehner
 
USA Hawks Squad

15. Nate Ebner (The Ohio State University)
14. Shawn Rafferty (NYAC)
13. Owen Collins (Boston Irish Wolfhounds)
12. Mike Graham (Glendale Raptors)
11. Justin Boyd (Dallas Harlequins)
10. Brendan Thompson (Life University)
9. Mike Petri (NYAC)
1. Jon Vitale (Chicago Lions)
2. Phil Abraham (Chicago Lions)
3. Chad Slaby (Chicago Lions)
4. Brian Doyle (NYAC)
5. John Van der Giessen (Denver Barbarians)
6. Travis Meidinger (Denver Barbarians)
7. Nic Johnson (Denver Barbarians)
8. Mark Aylor (Life University)
Replacements
16. Phil Thiel (Life University)
17. Brian Olmes (PAC)
18. Pat Quinn (Denver Barbarians)
19. Josh Dean (Air Force)
20. Taylor Howden (Glendale Raptors)
21. Justin Hundley (NYAC)
22. Keikiokalani Misipeka (Pearl City)
Head Coach: Marty Wiggins
Referee: David Smortchevsky (Rugby Canada)
Reserve Referee: Mark Zetterberg
Touch Judge: Matt Eason
#4: Bernie Brown; #5: DJ Heffernan; #6 Mark Chubb

---