USA National Rugby Team

Bulletins


Rugby World Cup Qualifying Schedule Set

(Berkeley, California) 29 April 1998 -- Traveling to Buenos Aires this August, the United States will play three games in ten days in an effort to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the National Team confirmed today.

Featuring its chief hemispheric opponents, the US schedule for the final round of the World Cup's Americas zone qualifying tournament comprises host Argentina on August 15, archrival Canada on August 19, and Uruguay on August 22.

Three of four teams will advance, but the order of finish is important because it determines the qualifiers' draw at next year's World Cup in Wales. The US schedule is hardly favorable in that the team it would like to play first--Uruguay--instead comes last.

Argentina is the reigning Pan American champion, having triumphed in a September 1996 tournament in Ontario, Canada, that included the same four teams. The US finished third, losing to the Pumas by 29-26 and Canada by 23-18 but downing Uruguay 27-13.

In addition to last month's Iberian tour and the May-June Pacific Rim schedule, the US will undertake a short July tour to Fiji in order to complete its preparation.