The U.S. was planning on playing some opponents during the spring whether that was a traveling Argentinian club side, Canada 'A' or some other opponent. However, for one reason or another nothing was able to work out and when the offer came along to play better competition they took it. Timing and locations of camps, mostly in Florida, made scheduling difficulty in a way that a tour doesn't.
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Playing against both Uruguay and the Argentina Jaguars will be excellent preparation for the domestic Eagles and will mirror the kind of experience they receive at the Americas Rugby Championship. That tournament has gone on to help players prepare for the fall tour and the hope is that this will give players a chance to increase their game speed prior to the Pacific Nations Cup in July. As we've noted before, the U.S. also has plans to play Canada home and away as well as a Premiership side in the lead in to the World Cup.
Playing against both Uruguay and the Argentina Jaguars will be excellent preparation for the domestic Eagles and will mirror the kind of experience they receive at the Americas Rugby Championship. That tournament has gone on to help players prepare for the fall tour and the hope is that this will give players a chance to increase their game speed prior to the Pacific Nations Cup in July. As we've noted before, the U.S. also has plans to play Canada home and away as well as a Premiership side in the lead in to the World Cup.
Given the struggles of some of the domestic players to get caught up to the game speed of international play the U.S. will also be holding several more camps in addition to the tour. Plans are also in place to hold a forwards specific camp in order to address some of the issues in the scrum. It's possible that those camps will feature a match against a local side like the team has done in the past against Life and Seattle but it depends on location and the timing of the camp.
TIAR also understands that players hoping to get into the Eagles squad will be encouraged to play either in Seattle, the Pacific Rugby Premiership, or the American Rugby Premiership due to the sheer fact that those teams and leagues play more high-level competition on a regular basis. With their league matches and the Eagles tour most of the domestic Eagles will have played a lot of rugby heading into World Cup camp.
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What do you think of the tour? Will it give the domestic Eagles better preparation?