Todd Clever is raring to go prior to the USA's Churchill Cup campaign © Ian Muir

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Teams: England | United States of America

US Eagles flanker Todd Clever expects his team-mates to come out firing when they take on England Saxons in their Churchill Cup opener on Saturday.

The 28-year-old, capped 33 times by his country, has warned against complacency with places still up for grabs on the Eagles' Rugby World Cup panel.

"We said in our opening meeting, just because you are here it doesn't mean you are going to make the World Cup squad," he said.

"Just because the maths says there are 28 players here and 30 going to the World Cup, there are some guys that are either injured at the moment or getting rested because they have had long seasons in England or France. So basically it is a trial for everybody and you have to put your best foot forward in every training session, every meeting and obviously every game."

Following their appointment with the Saxons, the USA will face Tonga before finals day at Kingsholm on June 12, but Clever is taking it one game at a time.

"I ran through the Saxons squad after they announced it and it's a good team. It's really good for us to play against a quality team," he said.

"I'm sure they are going to want to put in a good performance after the Barbarians and guys will want their say towards to the World Cup squad. It is not going to be an easy task at all but for us we are looking forward to playing against the Saxons and it should be a fun one."

Coach Eddie O'Sullivan has named five players based in England for the campaign, with Will Johnson (London Irish), Mike MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie) and Shawn Pittman (London Welsh) joined by Junior Sifa and Tim Usasz, who both play Championship rugby for Nottingham.