USA Eagles coach Gary Gold has named winger Marcel Brache as the team’s captain ahead of their Americas Rugby Championship match against Chile on Saturday.
Brache, who was born in California but grew up in South Africa, is an international veteran at 31, having played for Western Province, the Stormers, and Australia’s Western Force in Super Rugby. He replaces regular captain Blaine Scully, who is injured for the match in Santiago.
The US are the two-time defending ARC champions, and Gold, a former South Africa assistant coach, said of the Eagles’ opening game against the Chileans: “Our first challenge of the ARC will not be easy, playing the Chilean side in their home territory.
“Chile plays a very passionate and physical game and given this is the start of a long tournament, we must play to our strengths to establish the momentum we need to carry us through the competition.
“Of course, we want to win our third ARC title, but that will be even more difficult as all teams have come back with a renewed physicality. This is the start of our Rugby World Cup year and we must ensure our guys are prepared to manage the intensity in each game for the full 80 minutes.”
The Eagles are boosted by the return of Sale Sharks flyhallf AJ McGinty, who has been out injured since November.
ARC matches count towards World Rugby rankings points and count as Test caps. Brache made his debut for the USA in 2016, and has 12 caps to date.
Team USA: 15 Will Magie, 14 Gannon Moore, 13 Bryce Campbell, 12 Paul Lasike, 11 Marcel Brache (captain), 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Shaun Davies, 8 Cam Dolan, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 6 John Quill, 5 Nick Civetta, 4 Greg Peterson, 3 Dino Waldren, 2 Joe Taufete’e, 1 Titi Lamositele
Substitutes: 16 James Hilterbrand, 17 Chance Wenglewski, 18 Paul Mullen, 19 Nate Brakeley, 20 Tevita Tameilau, 21 Ruben de Haas, 22 Tadhg Leader, 23 Dylan Audsley