Head-To-Head: Ireland v USA

2011 RUGBY WORLD CUP – POOL C: Sunday, September 11

IRELAND v USA, Stadium Taranaki, New Plymouth, 6pm local time/7am Irish time (live RTÉ Two/Setanta Sports Ireland/UTV)

IRELAND: Geordan Murphy (Leicester Tigers); Tommy Bowe (Ospreys), Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt), Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Tom Court (Malone/Ulster), Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster), Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster), Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster), Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster), Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster), Shane Jennings (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster).

Replacements: Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster), Tony Buckley (Sale Sharks), Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster), Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster), Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster), Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster).

USA: Blaine Scully (Unattached); Takudzwa Ngwenya (Biarritz Olympique), Paul Emerick (Life University), Andrew Suniula (Chicago Griffins), James Paterson (Highlanders); Roland Suniula (Boston Rugby), Mike Petri (New York Athletic Club); Mike MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie), Phil Thiel (Life University), Shawn Pittman (London Welsh), John van der Giessen (Unattached), Hayden Smith (Saracens), Louis Stanfill (Unattached), Todd Clever (Suntory Sungoliath) (capt), Nic Johnson (Unattached).

Replacements: Chris Biller (San Francisco Golden Gate), Mate Moeakiola (Bobigny 93), Scott LaValla (Stade Francais), Pat Danahy (Life University), Tim Usasz (Nottingham RFC), Nese Malifa (Glendale), Colin Hawley (Olympic Club).

Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Television Match Official: Graham Hughes (England)

Head-to-Head:

Played – 6
Ireland Won – 6
USA Won – 0

Ireland v USA: IRFU Stats Vault

Biggest Wins:

Ireland: Points & Margin: 83-3, 2000 Summer Tour

USA: –

Individual Records In The Series:

Most Points In A Match: Ireland 20 (Keith Wood 1999, David Humphreys 2004); USA 8 (Matt Alexander 1996, Kevin Dalzell 1999)

Most Tries In A Match: Ireland 4 (Keith Wood 1999); USA 1 (Vaea Anitoni 1994, Andre Bachelet 1994, Richard Tardits 1996, Jason Walker 1996, Kevin Dalzell 1999, Roland Suniula 2009)

Ireland – Form Guide From Start Of The 2010 Six Nations:

Won 29-11 v Italy home (Six Nations)
Lost 33-10 v France away (Six Nations)
Won 20-16 v England away (Six Nations)
Won 27-12 v Wales home (Six Nations)
Lost 23-20 v Scotland home (Six Nations)
Lost 66-28 v New Zealand away (Summer Tour)
Lost 22-15 v Australia away (Summer Tour)
Lost 23-21 v South Africa home (Autumn Series)
Won 20-10 v Samoa home (Autumn Series)
Lost 38-18 v New Zealand home (Autumn Series)
Won 29-9 v Argentina home (Autumn Series)
Won 13-11 v Italy away (Six Nations)
Lost 25-22 v France home (Six Nations)
Won 21-18 v Scotland away (Six Nations)
Lost 19-13 v Wales away (Six Nations)
Won 24-8 v England home (Six Nations)
Lost 10-6 v Scotland away (World Cup Warm-Up)
Lost 19-12 v France away (World Cup Warm-Up)
Lost 26-22 v France home (World Cup Warm-Up)
Lost 20-9 v England home (World Cup Warm-Up)

USA – Form Guide From Start Of 2010:

Won 39-22 v Russia home (Churchill Cup)
Lost 32-9 v England Saxons home (Churchill Cup)
Lost 24-10 v France ‘A’ home (Churchill Cup)
Won 22-17 v Portugal away (Autumn Tour)
Lost 25-0 v Scotland ‘A’ away (Autumn Tour)
Lost 19-17 v Georgia away (Autumn Tour)
Lost 87-8 v England Saxons away (Churchill Cup)
Lost 44-13 v Tonga neutral (Churchill Cup)
Won 32-25 v Russia neutral (Churchill Cup)
Lost 28-22 v Canada away (World Cup warm-up)
Lost 27-7 v Canada home (World Cup warm-up)
Lost 20-14 v Japan away (World Cup warm-up)

Ireland – Most-Capped Players:

113 Brian O’Driscoll
111 Ronan O’Gara
105 John Hayes
98 Peter Stringer
92 Malcolm O’Kelly
82 Girvan Dempsey
78 Paul O’Connell
75 Donncha O’Callaghan
72 David Humphreys
72 David Wallace
70 Kevin Maggs
70 Geordan Murphy
69 Mike Gibson

Ireland – All-Time Leading Points Scorers:

1031 Ronan O’Gara
560 David Humphreys
308 Michael Kiernan
296 Eric Elwood
235 Brian O’Driscoll
217 Ollie Campbell

Ireland – All-Time Leading Try Scorers:

44 Brian O’Driscoll
29 Denis Hickie
21 Shane Horgan
19 Girvan Dempsey
18 Geordan Murphy
17 Tommy Bowe
17 Brendan Mullin
16 Ronan O’Gara
15 Kevin Maggs
15 Keith Wood

USA – Most-Capped Players:

62 Luke Gross
62 Mike MacDonald
58 Alec Parker
53 Dave Hodges
49 Kort Schubert
48 Mike Hercus
46 Vaea Anitoni
45 Dan Lyle
44 Tom Billups
44 Paul Emerick
42 Kevin Dalzell

USA – All-Time Leading Points Scorers:

465 Mike Hercus
286 Matt Alexander
144 Chris O’Brien
143 Mark Williams
130 Vaea Anitoni
109 Kevin Dalzell
100 Grant Wells
70 Paul Emerick

USA – All-Time Leading Try Scorers:

26 Vaea Anitoni
14 Paul Emerick
11 Todd Clever
10 Phillip Eloff
9 David Fee
9 Mike Hercus
9 Riaan van Zyl

World Rugby All-Time Top Points Scorers:

1229 Dan Carter (New Zealand)
1218 Jonny Wilkinson (1151-England, 67-Lions)
1090 Neil Jenkins (1049-Wales, 41-Lions)
1031 Ronan O’Gara (Ireland)
1010 Diego Dominguez (27-Argentina, 983-Italy)
967 Andrew Mehrtens (New Zealand)
942 Stephen Jones (889-Wales, 53-Lions)
911 Michael Lynagh (Australia)
893 Percy Montgomery (South Africa)
878 Matt Burke (Australia)
786 Chris Paterson (Scotland)

World Rugby All-Time Top Try Scorers:

64 David Campese (Australia)
56 Shane Williams (54-Wales, 2-Lions)
50 Rory Underwood (49-England, 1-Lions)
49 Doug Howlett (New Zealand)
46 Christian Cullen (New Zealand)
46 Joe Rokocoko (New Zealand)
45 Brian O’Driscoll (44-Ireland, 1-Lions)
44 Jeff Wilson (New Zealand)
41 Gareth Thomas (40-Wales, 1-Lions)
40 Chris Latham (Australia)

(Note: Daisuke Ohata scored 69 tries for Japan, but not all against major international opposition)

The ‘100 Caps’ Club:

139 George Gregan (Australia)
119 Jason Leonard (114-England, 5-Lions)
119 Brian O’Driscoll (113-Ireland, 6-Lions)
118 Fabien Pelous (France)
113 Ronan O’Gara (111-Ireland, 2-Lions)
111 Philippe Sella (France)
110 George Smith (Australia)
107 John Hayes (105-Ireland, 2-Lions)
107 Victor Matfield (South Africa)
106 Stephen Jones (100-Wales, 6-Lions)
106 John Smit (South Africa)
105 Chris Paterson (Scotland)
103 Gareth Thomas (100-Wales, 3-Lions)
103 Martyn Williams (99-Wales, 4-Lions)
102 Stephen Larkham (Australia)
102 Percy Montgomery (South Africa)
101 Alessandro Troncon (Italy)
101 David Campese (Australia)

Follow the Ireland team in New Zealand on www.twitter.com/irfurugby.