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Eagle Hooley facing 'ultimate challenge' after helping Saracens gain promotion

(Photo by Ashley Western/MB Media/Getty Images)

Full back Will Hooley helped Saracens regain their Premiership status and now faces the “ultimate challenge” in a US Eagles team that has not played together for nearly two years and faces England and Ireland in the space of six days.

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Hooley’s experience and goal kicking will be vital against England on Sunday – American Independence Day – with the Eagles having lost AJ MacGinty, their captain and outside half, who suffered a serious knee injury in Sale’s failed bid for the Premiership title. His loss removes a key points scoring weapon from the American arsenal and a way of getting onto the scoreboard at Twickenham and the Aviva Stadium on July 10.

These two difficult assignments will help prepare the Eagles for their 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifying games with Canada in September and not having played together since the World Cup in Japan only increases the problems facing head coach Gary Gold and his players.

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Will James Ryan starting for Ireland send the Irish media and fans into a frenzy?

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    Will James Ryan starting for Ireland send the Irish media and fans into a frenzy?

    Cambridge-born Hooley qualifies for the USA through his grandmother and was a member of the England U20 Junior World Cup-winning squad in 2013 alongside Henry Slade, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell.

    The 15-cap full-back said: “I know that having been with US Rugby for a period we need to be taking on teams like England and Ireland and we cannot just rock up to a World Cup having only played a couple of games against Tier 1 nations in the intervening four years. Playing these nations will only make us better and I realise this summer is going to be tough as we haven’t seen each other as a squad since the 2019 World Cup so it is the ultimate challenge – but we have nothing to lose.

    “Attitude can go a long way and it will be right up there and we need to know where we stand heading into the World Cup qualifying games. I know we were in a tough group ( England, France, Argentina, and Tonga) at the 2019 World Cup but we underachieved. I know what we were capable of and we didn’t fire the shots we wanted at the tournament.”

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    R
    RedWarrior 13 minutes ago
    Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss

    The English defense was excellent in the first half. This is considering Ireland's attack has improved significantly since the Autumn with former Leinster attack coach Goodman. Ireland were beaten by NZ in the Autumn, are behind SA and arguably behind France so de facto 4th in order (rankings take time to catch up) As Eddie Jones said Ireland are still in that elite group so England's domination in the first half is noteworthy.

    I believe they have spent the time since the Autumn largely on defence. On broken play they were relying on Smiths instint along with some jiggery pokery. For Smiths early line break a Twindaloo blocked Baird which left the gap for smith. It looked like he did Aki, but Baird was a little late arriving and clever play by Tom Curry allowed the gap for Smith. Earls line break was Smith spotting Baird coming out and beating him with a beautiful pass to Earl.

    We saw the rehearsed plays for a couple of Ireland's tries. The Aki try was just identifying that England tended to hide Smith on the wing creating a vulnerability which Ireland exploited with one of Akis great finishes.

    Although Ireland were relaxing at the end the two English tries were good enough quality and we may see more of it next week (Scotland will also have taken note).

    Although on the easier side of the draw Borthwick almost took England to a RWC final.

    But in common with the top4 you need to have firepower to get those tries in big games. Can Borthwick manage that? I don't think so.

    Next week even if England have a great first half again, you would be looking at France converting 3 of those Irish chances and pushing on after the break.

    Can Borthwick develop a plan to beat France in the next few years. If the answer is no England need to find someone who can.

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    LONG READ Which Six Nations squad is best prepared to succeed today and in the future? Which Six Nations squad is best prepared to succeed today and in the future?
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