Canada stick with tried and tested

Editor

Kieran Crowley has named the same XV that did duty against the Australian Barbarians for their opening World Cup clash against Tonga.

Canada coach Kieran Crowley has named the same XV that did duty against the Australian Barbarians for their opening World Cup clash against Tonga.

The Canadians lost that game 38-14 but Crowley has decided that the combinations on offer showed enough to deserve another go.

Ranked 14th in the world, the men from North America face a tough test against a team ranked two places above them.

“We've worked guys in throughout preparation and picked what we think is the strongest team,” said Crowley.

“We've hopefully given them enough game time together so they'll be right. We look at who were playing against and what team we think is best to face Tonga and we consider this is the best possible team to do that and that's where the selections have come from.”

The Canucks mentor has pinpointed set pieces an physicality as key areas for his men.

“The set play is crucial, you've got to get good platform ball so that will be a massive challenge for the guys around the scrum and the line-out,” he explained.

“Obviously the contact area, Tonga bring a real physical game to the table and we've got to match that.”

Canada: 15 James Pritchard, 14 Ciaran Hearn, 13 DTH Van Der Merwe, 12 Ryan Smith, 11 Phil Mackenzie, 10 Ander Monro, 9 Ed Fairhurst, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Chauncey O'Toole, 6 Adam Kleeberger, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Jason Marshall, 2 Pat Riordan (capt), 1 Hubert Buydens.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Hamilton, 17 Scott Franklin, 18 Tyler Hotson, 19 Nanyak Dala, 20 Conor Trainor, 21 Sean White, 22 Nathan Hirayama.

Date: Wednesday, September 14
Venue: Northland Events Centre, Whangarei
Kick-off: 17:00 (5:00 GMT)
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Steve Walsh (Australia), Stuart Terheege (England)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)