Many expect the United States to huff and puff and blow Bermuda's World Cup chances to the ground today.

The Eagles -- with a slight edge in height and weight -- appear to be a stronger squad on paper, but Bermuda will have the distinct advantage of being together longer.

Today's match marks the third time this current crop of Eagles will be playing together, and with the exception of this week's practices, they had not seen each other since losing to Australia last October.

Bermuda, on the other hand, have been hard at work since last summer with their starting line-up playing more games together and also winning the Caribbean championships.

So do not tell Peacock -- who analyses his players below -- that his squad will not have a chance today.

"I did an interview on the telephone with someone from Argentina the other day asking about the team and the game,'' said Peacock, "and I told him we're looking forward to coming down and playing Argentina. We're confident we're going to win. We're looking forward to hosting Argentina here.'' A victory over the Eagles today will enable Bermuda to play Argentina in a home-and-away series for the next round of qualifying.

The door opened on Bermuda's qualifying odyssey soon after the 1991 World Cup, when the International Rugby Football Board agreed to allow more countries to qualify for the next World Cup, scheduled for South Africa in 1995.

Whatever the outcome today, the shape of rugby is changing dramatically in the US and, to a lesser degree, in Bermuda.

Nine of the players starting today for the locals are native-born. More Bermudians than ever are becoming interested in rugby. Heath (Butch) Robinson, a Bermudian, scored 10 tries during league play this season to lead the First XV's.

Dramatic changes are taking place in the US, where Eagle head coach Jack Clark has been handed the enormous task of rebuilding his country's entire rugby programme.

The biggest problem the US national team faces is not playing together often enough.

"We get together so little that we almost have to start from the ground up every time,'' said Eagle assistant coach Dan Porter. "Every moment that we're together is precious. So far we've held our breath every time the team has taken the field. We're so young, there's so many new players.'' The Eagles are in the midst of a youth movement, but Clark has been careful not to brush aside the veteran players.

"We're trying to identify as many young players as we can, but we have a lot of guys who are not going to go down easy to a young guy,'' said Clark. "We have a lot of proud veterans on this team. Just because a guy is young and athletic the veterans are not going to give up a spot without a fight.'' Said Captain Kevin Swords: "We didn't win last year so we have no cockiness about us.'' Richard Tardits, starting at open flanker today for the Eagles, meanwhile, summed up the way most of his team-mates feel. "I think it's going to be a great game,'' he said.

Even Peacock would agree with that.

ALVIN HARVEY -- Bermuda captain.

KEVIN SWORDS -- United States Eagles captain.