Blaine Scully will captain the USA Eagles when they launch the inaugural Americas Rugby Championship (ARC) against Argentina in Houston on Saturday.
Full back Scully will skipper the side while Cardiff Blues team-mate Cam Dolan plays in the back row at the BBVA Compass Stadium.
Nine Rugby World Cup veterans are included by Head Coach John Mitchell in the first Eagles team he has selected.
“The country is only used to about six test matches a year," Mitchell said. "Now we're getting close to 12 with the inaugural Americas Rugby Championship.
“As we saw in the World Cup, we weren't deep enough in terms of experience. There were great 50-minute periods but we need to stay in the game for 80 minutes to give ourselves a chance of bridging the gap between us and the Tier One nations.
“Like anything, we need a starting point, and that's what Argentina will be – a starting point.”
Scully and Dolan will both return to Cardiff Blues next week ahead of the Guinness PRO12 away trip to Benetton Treviso in Italy.
USA Eagles: 15 Blaine Scully (c), 14 Takudzwa Hgwenya, 13 Chad London, 12 Lemoto Filikitonga, 11 Kingsley McGowan, 10 James Bird, 9 Niku Kruger; 1 Eric Fry, 2 Joseph Taufete’e, 3 Chris Baumann, 4 Brodie Orth, 5 Greg Peterson, 6 Cam Dolan, 7 Todd Clever, 8 David Tameilau.
Replacements: 16 Mike Sosene-Feagai, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 James Hilterbrand, 19 Ben Landry, 20 Alex Gletzer, 21 JP Eloff, 22 Mike Te’o, 23 Jake Anderson.