The World Rugby Pacific Four Series begins this Saturday, April 1 in Madrid, Spain, and the USA and Canada women’s national teams kick off the action. The match is the first of three international tests for the North Americans, who will also play New Zealand and Australia during the summer. Saturday’s match will live-stream on FloRugby at 11 a.m. ET.
“We were obviously happy to get the win against Spain last week but we understand we made very hard work of it,” USA Women’s National Team interim head coach Richard Ashfield told USA Rugby. “Our accuracy needs to improve and we know that some small adjustments can hopefully lead to some big gains. We capped 8 new players last week and they all did well and have learned a lot from the experience. We have had a good week of practice and think we definitely have the strengths in the squad to cause Canada a lot of problems.”
Ashfield has made nine changes to the starting lineup that beat Spain 20-14 a week ago, and captain Kate Zackary remains at No. 8. The front row is the most experienced unit on the pitch, accounting for 99 caps together, but has the opportunity to afford reserve Tiara A’au a first-ever cap.
The U.S. faced Canada twice at the Rugby World Cup in the fall, losing the pool match 29-14 and the Cup quarterfinal 32-11. Tune into FloRugby at 11 a.m. ET for the live-stream.
USA ROSTER vs CANADA | PACIFIC FOUR SERIES
| NAME | CLUB | CAPS |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hope Rogers | Exeter Chiefs | 42 |
| 2. Joanna Kitlinski | Sale Sharks | 24 |
| 3. Catie Benson | Sale Sharks | 33 |
| 4. Evelyn Ashenbrucker | San Diego Surfers | 8 |
| 5. Alycia Washington | Sale Sharks | 25 |
| 6. Rachel Ehrecke | DMP Sharks | 3 |
| 7. Rachel Johnson | Exeter Chiefs | 18 |
| 8. Kate Zackary (C) | Exeter Chiefs | 28 |
| 9. Carly Waters | Sale Sharks | 17 |
| 10. McKenzie Hawkins | Colorado Greywolves | 9 |
| 11. Lotte Clapp | Saracens | 8 |
| 12. Gabby Cantorna | Exeter Chiefs | 19 |
| 13. Eti Haungatau | Sale Sharks | 9 |
| 14. Autumn Czaplicki | USA Sevens | 1 |
| 15. Tess Feury | DMP Sharks | 15 |
| 16. Jett Hayward | Life West Gladiatrix | 1 |
| 17. Maya Learned | Gloucester-Hartpury | 10 |
| 18. Tiara A’au* | Univ. Central Washington | 0 |
| 19. Megan Neyen | Beantown RFC | 1 |
| 20. Georgie Perris-Redding | Sale Sharks | 6 |
| 21. Olivia Ortiz | DMP Sharks | 14 |
| 22. Kristin Bitter | Dartmouth College | 1 |
| 23. Bulou Mataitoga | Loughborough | 9 |
USA Women’s Eagles Traveling Staff
Head Coach | Rich Ashfield
Assistant Coach | Katie Dowty
Assistant Coach | Jamie Burke
Strength & Conditioning | Sylvia Braaten
Head Athletic Trainer | Katherine Henry
Team Doctor | Chau Bui
Athletic Trainer | Anna Unnasch
Video Analyst | Callum Howells
Team Manager | Tim Westwood