The USA Rugby Women’s National Team (WNT) has named its match-day 23 for round two of the WXV2 against Scotland. The Friday, Oct. 20 test kicks off at 8 a.m. ET and RugbyPass TV will have the free livestream. [Lead photo: Johan Rynners – World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images]
Interim head coach Milton Haig has made no changes to the starting lineup that faced Samoa in last Saturday’s 36-26 victory, but two swaps have been made in the reserves. Katana Howard, the Sale Shark and late add to tour, and USA 7s resident Autumn Czaplicki replace Emily Henrich and Meya Bizer on the bench. [Bizer has been ruled out for the rest of tour due to injury and Kristin Bitter has been called up as a replacement.] The starting 15 also sees the return of the Player of the Match against Samoa, Mata Hingano, who was helped off the pitch midway through the second half.
USA WNT VS SCOTLAND
1. Catie Benson
2. Kathryn Treder
3. Charli Jacoby
4. Hallie Taufoou
5. Erica Jarrell
6. Freda Tafuna
7. Tahlia Brody
8. Rachel Johnson
9. Carly Waters
10. Gabby Cantorna
11. Lotte Clapp
12. Mata Hingano
13. Kate Zackary (c)
14. Tess Feury
15. Bulou Mataitoga
16. Paige Stathopoulos
17. Mona Tupou
18. Keia Mae Sagapolu
19. Jenny Kronish
20. Rachel Ehrecke
21. Taina Tukuafu
22. Katana Howard
23. Autumn Czaplicki
Scotland beat South Africa 31-17 in its opening test and head coach Bryan Easson has named an unchanged squad to play USA. The teams last saw each other on Aug. 27, 2022, in a Rugby World Cup warmup, a game the Eagles won 21-17. Friday’s match also has the potential to reshuffle the World Rugby rankings:
• Scotland will climb above Italy into 8th place if they beat USA and Italy lose to South Africa.
• The Scots must win by more than 15 points to become the higher-ranked of the two nations with a new high of 7th possible if Italy also fail to beat the Springbok Women.
• Such a margin of defeat could see the Women’s Eagles drop two places to a new low of 9th.