The USA Men's National Team is settled in on the island of Okinawa, and while it's a bit out of the way, head coach Gary Gold likes it that way.

"This is a good place to fly under the radar," the Eagles coach said. "We had a bit more time on our hands and I thought to avoid being caught up in the hustle and bustle of a bigger city, it would be a little bit easier for us to acclimatize.

"We knew that the further south you go, the hotter and more humid it is, so we wanted to give ourselves a really good preparation chance."

The USA is in a very tough Rugby World Cup pool with England, France, Argentina, and Tonga on the slate. Winning one of those games would be considered a success. Winning two would mean automatic qualification to the 2023 World Cup, a goal that teams like the USA would love to accomplish.

"We're playing world-class teams in our pool," added Gold. "Every one of them brings something different to the table. Three out of four of them are top-10 teams in world rugby.

"This is what USA Rugby has been relishing for a number of years. We've wanted to compare ourselves against the best in the world and I'm really proud of the guys and how hard they've worked."

Gold said he likes his team's set-piece and defensive work, but that physical, confrontational approach means you might get injuries, and he's loaded the team with forwards —18 out of the 31.

"That's the base we need to play off and that's the reason we've gone with 18 forwards," he explained. "The turnaround of our games is very short, it's six and four days. I'm not for one second saying the backs aren't going to work hard, because obviously they are, but it's going to take its toll on the forwards, no doubt about that."

The USA opens up against England on September 26, which gives the Eagles a bit more time to prepare before the meatgrinder of four test matches in 18 days.

"They're such an outstanding group of players, aren’t they?" Gold said of England. "Their strength in depth is ridiculous. They could pick any one of two teams out of their 31 and they would be very powerful. It's going to be interesting to see how they go."