All five of Loughborough Lightning’s USA internationals have been names in the Eagles’ matchday squad to face North American rivals, Canada.
The eagerly-anticipated contest takes place at TD Place in Ottawa at 12am on Saturday 2 August (UK time), with USA looking to avenge their 26-14 loss in Kansas City the last time the bordering countries met.
Head Coach Sione Fukofuka has picked Lightning’s Kathryn Treder and Keia Mae Sagapolu at hooker and tighthead prop respectively, while Alev Kelter wears the number 12 shirt and Bulou Mataitoga operates from fullback.
Tahlia Brody is among the replacements for USA’s final match before heading over to England ahead of the 2025 Rugby World Cup.
Fukofuka said: We were proud of our last performance against Canada in Kansas City, and it is one we are proud of and take a lot of confidence from, especially to do it in front of such a great crowd. We competed for the 80 minutes but needed to give ourselves more opportunities to score points, so we had some unfinished business.
“We have spent the past three weeks at the Mount preparing. First with the Fiji Test and now turning our focus on Canada. The players and staff have taken this time to zero in on our detail, work hard at our collisions and prepare to take the opportunities we are confident we will create against Canada.”
USA team to face Canada
Saturday 2 August
TD Place, Ottawa
Kick-off: 12am (BST)
15 Bulou Mataitoga (Loughborough Lightning / Bay Area Breakers)
14 Cheta Emba (Boston Banshees)
13 Ilona Maher (Bristol Bears / USA Sevens)
12 Alev Kelter (Loughborough Lightning / Bay Area Breakers)
11 Lotte Sharp (Saracens)
10 McKenzie Hawkins (Denver Onyx)
9 Cassidy Bargell (Boston Banshees)
1 Hope Rogers (Exeter Chiefs)
2 Kathryn Treder (Loughborough Lightning/Bay Area Breakers)
3 Keia May Sagapolu (Loughborough Lightning)
4 Hallie Taufoou (Denver Onyx)
5 Erica Jarrell-Searcy (Sale Sharks)
6 Kate Zackary (Trailfinders Women)
7 Georgie Perris-Redding (Sale Sharks)
8 Fred Tafuna (Lindenwood University)
Replacements:
16 Paige Stathopoulos (Ealing Trailfinders / Boston Banshees)
17 Maya Learned (Denver Onyx)
18 Alivia Leatherman (Trailfinders Women/Twin Cities Gemini)
19 Rachel Ehrecke (Denver Onyx)
20 Tahlia Brody (Loughborough Lightning/Denver Onyx)
21 Olivia Ortiz (Sale Sharks)
22 Emily Henrich (Leicester Tigers/Boston Banshees)
23 Sariah Ibarra (USA Sevens)
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