ONS Sports Medicine expert, Dr. Marc Kowalsky, will serve as team physician for the USA Rugby National Team Selects at the upcoming 2018 World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge in Montevideo, Uruguay from October 6 – 14.  Dr. Kowalsky has served as team physician for the USA Rugby National Teams since 2013.  “This is a challenging competition that will help the USA team prepare for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan,” he said.

According to the USA Rugby website, the Americas Pacific Challenge was introduced in 2016 to boost the high-performance pathway and to support the Americas Rugby Championship and Pacific Nations Cup as well as November international test window preparation.

The six “A” team tournament includes two teams each from the Pacific Islands, North America and South America.

This year’s tournament sees reigning champions Argentina XV compete alongside Canada A, Samoa A, Tonga A, Uruguay A and USA Selects.

The World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge will be a first-past-the-post tournament format. It will be played across three competition rounds on October 6, 10 and 14. Teams in Pool A will play all teams in Pool B once, and teams in Pool B will face all teams in Pool A once. The tournament winner will be decided by the total number of competition points accumulated in the three matches played.

Pool A consists of Argentina XV, hosts Uruguay A and Tonga A, while 2017 runners-up USA Selects are in Group B with Samoa A and Canada A.

Agustín Pichot, World Rugby Vice Chairman and Rugby Americas President was quoted saying “With Rugby World Cup 2019 on the horizon, the Americas Pacific Challenge continues to play a key role in supporting player development.”

Dr. Kowalsky’s interest rugby began when he played the sport while at Dartmouth College.  Locally, he is team physician for Iona Rugby Football Club, White Plains Rugby Football Club, and the Greenwich High School Rugby team.