July Internationals 2025: USA vs Belgium

Two teams preparing for upcoming World Cup qualifiers will meet for the first time on Saturday. The USA plays host to Belgium in North Carolina to open up their international season and the July test window. While the Eagles are yet to formally start their qualification campaign, the Black Devils earned a spot in November’s last-gasp Repechage tournament by defeating the Netherlands in March – and in doing so replacing the Dutch on the two-test North American tour.

FORM GUIDE

Current World Ranking: 15 (70.02 points)
2024-11-23 – Spain 23, USA 26 (Madrid)
2024-11-16 – Tonga 17, USA 36 (Chambéry)
2024-11-09 – Portugal 17, USA 21 (Coimbra)
2024-09-21 – Samoa 18, USA 13 (Osaka)
2024-09-14 – Fiji 22, USA 3 (Tokyo)

Current World Ranking: 22 (59.98 points)
2025-03-15 – Netherlands 10, Belgium 31 (Amsterdam)
2025-03-01 – Belgium 38, Switzerland 5 (Waterloo)
2025-02-15 – Germany 19, Belgium 39 (Kassel)
2025-02-08 – Belgium 14, Romania 31 (Mons)
2025-02-01 – Portugal 40, Belgium 30 (Lisbon)

STARTING LINEUP CHANGES

	IN	OUT
1	Jack Iscaro	Jake Turnbull
2	Shilo Klein	Kapeli Pifeleti
3	Tonga Kofe	Paul Mullen
4	Marno Redelinghuys	Jason Damm
5	Sam Golla	Greg Peterson
8	Benjamín Bonasso	Paddy Ryan
14	Toby Fricker	Mark O’Keeffe
15	Mitch Wilson	Erich Storti

	IN	OUT
3	Jean-Baptiste de Clercq	Maxime Jadot
4	Toon Deceuninck	Gillian Benoy
5	Arthur Smeets	Maximilien Hendrickx
6	Jérémie Brasseur	Thomas Demolder
11	Ervin Muric	Siméon Soenen
12	Maxime Vacquier	Jens Torfs
14	Dazzy Cornez	Thomas Wallraf

NOTES

Belgium finished in 5th place in the Rugby Europe Championship… while they missed out on automatic qualification, they now have a chance to reach the World Cup for the first time as the first team to secure their place in the Repechage round-robin
of the Belgian match day 23, only two players did not feature in the REC campaign – hooker Julien Masure and lock Dries de Keyser, both reserves
the majority of the Black Devils squad plays their club rugby in France… of Saturday’s starting lineup the only exception is flyhalf Hugo de Crancq, who plays for Agronomia in Portugal
long-time skipper Jens Torfs has been named on the bench with Bourgoin’s Maxime Vacquier, more than a decade younger, handed the start in the midfield… Jean-Maurice Decubber steps in, having also led the team against Germany in February
openside flanker Decubber and loosehead prop Charlesty Berguet (both Vannes) are joined by Toulouse fullback Matias Remue as French Top 14 representatives… Torfs has previous top flight experience during his many seasons with Perpignan and scrumhalf Julien Berger began his pro career with La Rochelle… reserve wing or fullback Simeon Soenen plays for Montauban, who recently earned a shock Pro D2 title and will now join the Top 14 next season
while the back row and backline are at or near full strength for Belgium, their tight five will be missing three starters from the REC – tighthead prop Maxime Jadot and second row pair Gillian Benoy and Maximilien Hendrickx… Vannes lock Maurice Fromont was also unavailable to make the trip
only three of the USA match day squad are not based in Major League Rugby… Kapeli Pifeleti is in the Pro D2 with Provence, while AJ MacGinty suits up for Bristol Bears in the English Premiership… 20-year-old midfielder Dom Besag is still a student at Saint Mary’s College in California
Benjamín Bonasso is the new Eagles captain, taking over from the retired Greg Peterson… Bonasso is US-born but was raised in Argentina and played for Los Pumitas up to u20 level… the 28-year-old joined the now-defunct New York team in 2021 from Club Newman, and has spent the last two years as a vice-captain with the Miami Sharks
Nate Augspurger is set to win his 50th cap for the Eagles… the 35-year-old debuted in 2016 split his career between scrumhalf and wing… he’ll be the oldest man on the roster on Saturday, just under a month older than MacGinty
Tonga Kofe and Marno Redelinghuys are handed starts in their test debuts, while Tevita Naqali, Makeen Alikhan, and Christopher Hilsenbeck should win their first caps as replacements… Hilsenbeck previously won 22 caps for Germany, his last coming in 2019… Naqali played for Fiji in a non-cap match against the Barbarians that same year
the Eagles are without France-based forwards Renger van Eerten and Nafi Ma’afu, who are both recovering from injury… Toulouse prop David Ainu’u is also injured though his test future remains cloudy with some suggestions he could switch to Samoa ahead of RWC 2027

QUOTES

Scott Lawrence (Head Coach)

“We had 16 players arrive last week to get on track with our athlete performance staff which has been great for initial connection, and the early arrival players have been ambassadors for the others coming in this week. Overall we’ve seen great engagement and good intentional connection. Coming into the first test series, the focus will continue to be the real basics of the game, in our set piece, territory and exits.”

Michiel Leysen (Rugby Belgium President)

“This tour marks a new chapter for Belgian rugby — a reward for the hard work of everyone involved and a key step in preparing for the World Cup Repechage.”

PREDICTION

It will be a very warm evening in Charlotte, which could affect ball-handling. That could favor the bigger Eagles pack, who will outweigh their opposites by about 15lbs (7kg) a man. The Americans also have strength in halfback pairing de Haas and MacGinty. Out wide the advantage lies with the Belgians, particularly with the Remue twins. The tireless Decubber is also a constant threat at the breakdown. If the Eagles control field position they should be able to wear down the smaller Belgian forwards and pull away in the last quarter. USA are favorites at home.

TEAMS

USA
1 Jack Iscaro, 2 Shilo Klein, 3 Tonga Kofe, 4 Marno Redelinghuys, 5 Sam Golla, 6 Vili Helu, 7 Cory Daniel, 8 Benjamín Bonasso (capt.), 9 Ruben de Haas, 10 AJ MacGinty, 11 Nate Augspurger, 12 Tavite Lopeti, 13 Dom Besag, 14 Toby Fricker, 15 Mitch Wilson

Replacements: 16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Payton Telea-Ilalio, 18 Pono Davis, 19 Tevita Naqali, 20 Makeen Alikhan, 21 JP Smith, 22 Christopher Hilsenbeck, 23 Erich Storti

BELGIUM
1 Charlesty Berguet, 2 Alexandre Raynier, 3 Jean-Baptiste de Clercq, 4 Toon Deceuninck, 5 Arthur Smeets, 6 Jean-Maurice Decubber (capt.), 7 Jérémie Brasseur, 8 William van Bost, 9 Julien Berger, 10 Hugo de Francq, 11 Ervin Muric, 12 Maxime Vacquier, 13 Florian Remue, 14 Dazzy Cornez, 15 Matias Remue

Replacements: 16 Julien Masure, 17 Lucas Sotteau, 18 Bruno Vliegen, 19 Dries de Keyser, 20 Felipe Geraghty, 21 Isaac Montoisy, 22 Jens Torfs, 23 Siméon Soenen

MATCH INFO

Date: Saturday, July 5
Venue: American Legion Memorial Stadium, Charlotte
Kickoff: 19:30 local (16:30 Pacific, Sunday 01:30 Belgium)
Weather Forecast: sunny, 88°F (31°C), wind E 10-15mph (16-24km/h)
Broadcasts: Paramount+ (USA), RugbyPass TV