RWC Match Preview - Ireland vs USA

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Ireland v USA
Ireland's warm up program to their World Cup campaign seemed to be about as disastrous as it could have been. Captain Brian O'Driscoll was only able to play a minimal part in one of the warm up games, against France, as a result of a "stinger". European player of the year, and Ireland's most exciting player, Sean O'Brien missed game time due to a medial ligament injury. David Wallace suffered a serious knee injury against England in the last warm up game and could be forced to retire as a result, a number of other players including Felix Jones suffered injuries which saw them unavailable to travel to New Zealand, and loose head prop Cian Healey is not fully recovered from his eye socket injury which he sustained in the last warm up game.

Combined with all the serious injuries Ireland suffered they went through their entire warm up campaign without a win and this means that they have now just 1 victory in their last 6 matches. Ireland have opted to select debutant scrum half Conor Murray for their opening game against the USA, and with other second string players filling on for the injured ones this game could prove more difficult for Ireland than a game against the country ranked 18th in the IRB World Rankings should.

The USA are, sadly, a team with just one or two stars and not the 50 which their nation's flag posses. Todd Clever became the first American to score a try in Super rugby when, in March 2009, as a representative of the Lions franchise he crossed the white wash against the Hurricanes. The back rower is known as "Captain America" and is just as all action as his nickname makes him sound. He is a sizeable physical presence, standing at 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing over 15 stone and he can get round the park too, he has represented the US Sevens team at more than 20 tournaments on the IRB World Series. The USA's other big star is Zimbabwean born winger Takudzwa Ngwenya, the 26 year old moved to the States when he was still in High School, and after representing Plano High School in Texas he then played for the Dallas Athletic Rugby Club form where he was selected to represent the USA Under 19 side. He shot to fame during the 2007 Rugby World Cup when he literally round around South African pace man Bryan Habana to finish off a 90 metre try which was incidentally started when Todd Clever intercepted a pass just short of his own try line.

Ireland should win this game as result of having more full time professional athletes in their ranks, 5 of the USA squad are currently unattached. However Ireland have a history of making the World Cup Pool stages look a lot more difficult than they really should be so don't be surprised if Clever and Ngwenya can create a few magic moments and make life uncomfortable for Irish supporters everywhere on what will be a very historical and emotional day for Americans all around the world, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York's Twin Towers.
Blog by @Buck_Mitchell