From Thames Kiwi to USA Eagle

Tomorrow morning when the All Blacks take on the USA Eagles there will be one Thames family who will be cheering on the American underdogs.

Thames ex-pat Troy Hall has been named in the USA Eagles squad to play the All Blacks in front of a 61,000 plus crowd in Chicago.


Former Thames local and USA Eagles centre Troy Hall will take on the All Blacks tomorrow morning. Photo: Rugby Oregon

Troy has been named on the bench and expect to hear a raucous cheer coming out of a few Thames households when number 23 is brought on the field tomorrow.

His family will be dotted across the world but older brother Marc Hall says he'll be watching the game over bacon and eggs from his Thames home.

'Our family is extremely proud of Troy and really excited for him. USA all the way, yeah mate.”

Marc spoke to Troy on Skype about a week ago before his brother flew into Chicago to join the squad.

He says while the reality of his situation still had not really sunk in for his brother, Troy is extremely excited.

'Troy's sent me messages since saying it's going really well and the squad is training really hard.

'Selling out Soldier Field, it's the biggest home crowd these guys have ever had by a long shot.

'The media this game is generating is just amazing, Troy is buzzing and I think it's the same for a lot of the American guys.”

Troy has lived in America since 2006 and is currently based in Portland, Oregon, with his wife Sarah and baby daughter Celeste.

Since 2012 he has worked as a youth development officer at Rugby Oregon where he has introduced the sport to more than 15,000 boys and girls.

In past conversations Troy has said to his brother that rugby has made leaps and bounds in the past decade and believes they'll be a 'real force sooner rather than later”.

Marc says while his brother has become somewhat 'Americanised” he is fiercely proud of his Thames roots and still considers the place home.

'He hasn't lost his accent one bit, that's for sure. Troy is very proud to be from Thames, he was raised here, did all his schooling and played all his rugby here.

'Back in the day Troy was certainly one of the better players coming through, he's always shown promise and talent for rugby.

'Like so many Kiwis he dreamed of being an All Black and now he's got the next best thing by playing against them.”

Marc is eagerly looking forward to tomorrow morning's game which he will be watching from his Thames home.

Their younger brother Bradley will be watching from Australia while mother Chris has flown to Portland to babysit Troy's daughter.

'Everyone in Thames seems to be talking about the match at the moment, I think it will be the one few time that a lot of Kiwis around here will be cheering on the USA.

'Troy lives and breathes rugby and he's been absolutely blown away by the attention he's received as of late.

'Tomorrow's match should be awesome, we're really looking forward to it.”

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1 comment

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Posted on 01-11-2014 17:46 | By Capt_Kaveman

Mate 66-11 or should that be 11-66 since its in the U.S


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