The century-old rivalry between the United States and Romania will continue as the two teams prepare for their upcoming match in Chicago this Friday. Their first encounter occurred at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, and now they will compete for the Pershing Cup at the SeatGeek Stadium in Chicago, Illinois.
This will be the USA Eagles’ first game of the year, following their 42-12 victory over Spain last November in the La Vila Cup. The match against Romania will mark the Eagles’ first home fixture since they missed out on the World Cup and had to watch it on television instead.
The previous match between USA Eagles and Romania Oaks occurred last August, as the USA secured a commendable 31-17 victory in Bucharest, despite not qualifying for the World Cup.
An interesting development is the inclusion of homegrown USA player Robert Irimescu as Romania’s replacement hooker, along with head coach David Gérard introducing debutant Yanis Hornet. This upcoming match is particularly unique as it will be the first time the two teams face each other in the USA, with none of the previous nine test matches between the two countries taking place in the USA.
With the USA’s strong lineup and recent results indicating a strong performance, ARN predicts a victory by +15 points for the USA Eagles. This forecast is also influenced by the ideal weather conditions expected during the match, with a partly cloudy afternoon, mild winds, and a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.
The anticipated lineups for the match are as follows:
USA EAGLES:
– Jake Tunbull
– Dylan Fawsitt
– Paul Mullen
– Renger van Eerten
– Greg Peterson
– Sam Golla
– Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz
– Thomas Tu’avao
– JP Smith
– AJ MacGinty
– Nate Augspurger
– Tommaso Boni
– Tavite Lopeti
-Christian Dyer
– Mitch Wilson
ROMANIA:
– Iulian Hartig
– Ștefan Buruiană
– Vasile Balan
– Yanis Horvat
– Andrei Mahu
– Vlad Neculau
– Dragoș Ser
– Nicolaas Immelman
– Alin Conache
– Hinckley Vaovasa
– Tevita Manumua
– Jason Tomane
– Mihai Graure
– Marius Simionescu
– Paul Popoaia
The match is scheduled to take place at the SeatGeek Stadium in Chicago at 14:00 local time. It will be available to stream live on FloRugby, with the match officials being led by Referee Angus Mabey from New Zealand. The head-to-head record between the two teams favours the USA, with 7 wins to Romania’s 2. However, the USA’s victory at the last encounter in 2023 indicates the strong prospect of an exciting and competitive match.