It’s a massive rugby weekend in Washington, D.C. Fresh off her ESPYS win for Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Ilona Maher was named in the USA Women’s Rugby squad for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup taking place in England from August 22 to September 27.
Maher and her teammates will play one last game on U.S. Soil before traveling to the U.K. The Women’s Eagles face Fiji on July 19th at Audi Field as the first act in a CBS Sports broadcast doubleheader that also pits the USA Men’s Eagles against England.
The test match doubleheader has been a year in the making and is part of World Rugby and USA Rugby’s efforts to lay the foundation for successful Olympic games and Rugby World Cups in 2028, 2031, and 2033.
The D.C. Doubleheader
The USA women will go into the game feeling they should win. The Women’s Eagles are ranked 9th in the world, while Fiji are ranked 15th, but the Americans will not be taking the team from the South Pacific lightly.
“I think we’re just really excited,” prop Catie Benson told me after the team’s final training session. “It’s been a tough, hot, muggy day, 10 days, and I think we're just really excited to show all of our work that we have done throughout the whole campaign and also what we've been doing in the offseason.”
Benson will be heading to her third Rugby World Cup in a month and is eager to make sure the team gets on the plane having put on the best possible show for the fans. “We want to be quick out there and fast out there,” Benson said. “Fiji is a very physical team, and they have crazy offloads. So I think we’re just trying to shut all that down and just play our game.”
Meanwhile, the men will be going up against the English juggernaut — a formidable opponent even if some of their star players are currently touring with the British and Irish Lions. Ranked fifth in the world, England are heavy favorites going into the game and are coming off of a series victory against Argentina.
Eagles Head Coach Scott Lawrence is anticipating a strong challenge from the English. “I think playing against a team like England, the pace of the game is about building robustness in the players as they move from Major League Rugby to test rugby,” he told me at the USA Rugby Golden Gala. “I think that’s important. It’s one step in that journey of building the type of international players that we want to have long term, leading into World Cup qualification and the World Cup.”
For England, this game against the USA, and their wider tour is about building squad depth ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup. Debutant Joe Carpenter is looking forward to the match. It’s his first time playing in the U.S., and he will get to do it in front of a packed stadium with the chance to go home with three away victories out of three. “It’s massively exciting,” said Carpenter after a light training session. “We know it’ll be a tough test tomorrow, so to come away with a win and 6 new caps will be really great...I think there’s been about 10 or 11 new caps this tour and that boosts competition for the shirt.”