Tomorrow evening Canada face Tonga at home in Burnaby BC. As coach Kiernan Crowley is in the process of seeing how the squad shapes up in time for World Cup, he has made 3 changes to the front pack and left the combination at the back to see if they can get the magic happening.
Aaron Carpenter replaces Ray Barkwill at Hooker, while John Moonlight replaces debutant Thyssen de Goede. Andrew Tiedemann will take up Doug Wooldrige’s spot. Buydens, Phelan and Beukaboom round out the front pack with Captain Tyler Ardron at Number 8.
Gordon McRorie gets scrum half and kicking duties. The fact that Crowley is keeping McRorie and Liam Underwood at 10 is telling, so we will see how that combination goes on the weekend. For his part, Underwood said: “It feels good to have one [game] under your belt and it’s been a good couple of weeks of training. Things are going well.”
PNC Preview: Next Up Canada vs Tonga
The back three stay the same for the match with fleet-footed professionals DTH van der Merwe and Jeff Hassler on either wing and Matt Evans occupies the Number 15 position.
Canada wasn’t able to hold onto the ball against Japan last weekend, but the additional time spent as a team has helped with that, and they’ve been doing a lot of review this week. Fullback Evans said: “We created a lot of opportunities throughout the Japan game but just didn’t finish any of them and that’s down to the tiny one percent’s we talk about. Hopefully we can reproduce some of the situations we found ourselves in on Saturday and capitalize on them.”
Of Tonga, Canada knows they are a force to be reckoned with, and they are up against a big pack. Rugby Canada’s press release has both Underwood and Evans remarking on what they’re up against, with Underwood saying “We know they have a big nine who likes to run and have a go. All of their backs are big, physical guys, they run hard and aren’t afraid of any collisions.”
Evans echoed: “The more physical team gets a set piece dominance, game line dominance and that’s something we want to win. Whenever you play the South Sea Islander sides you expect it but you’ve got to match it to put yourself in position to get your front foot on them.”
It will be an exciting match-up. Canada has the home crowd advantage and if they can use that, and all they’ve been reviewing and training on, they can be victorious in this. It’s a good squad with great, strong and fast subs on the bench as well, such as Doug Wooldridge, Kyle Gilmour in the front pack and Nathan Hirayama and Phil Mackenzie ready to sub in their fast boots.
Definitely try time for the boys. Rise up #RedNation!
The game is aired on TSN 2 at 7 local time and 10 pm EST. I know I will stay up for it. Likely hear me from Ontario all the way to Swangard Stadium in Burnaby!
Below I include their schedule ahead as a reminder of all the upcoming excitement, and also how busy the lads are. It’s a great year to be a Rugby Canada supporter!
Pacific Nations Cup:
July 24 – Canada vs. Tonga (Swangard Stadium, Burnaby)
July 29 – Canada vs. Samoa (BMO Field, Toronto)
August 3 – Canada vs. TBD (Swangard Stadium, Burnaby)
Road to the Rugby World Cup:
August 22 – Canada vs. USA (Twin Elm Rugby Park, Ottawa)
August 29 – Canada vs. Glasgow Warriors (Wanderers Grounds, Halifax)
September 2 – Canada vs. Georgia (Esher, England)
September 6 – Canada vs. Fiji (The Stoop, England)
Rugby World Cup:
September 19 – Canada vs. Ireland (Cardiff, Wales)
September 26 – Canada vs. Italy (Leeds, England)
October 1 – Canada vs. France (Milton Keynes, England)
October 6 – Canada vs. Romania (Leicester, England)
For more information on players stats, etc., or to purchase tickets to Canada’s home games: http://events.rugbycanada.ca
Main Photo credit: WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)
