Ardron returns to lead Canada

Editor

Canada head coach Kieran Crowley has named his team for the Pool D match against Italy at Elland Road in Leeds on Saturday.

Crowley has made six changes to the starting line-up that lost to Ireland last Saturday.

These involve the return of captain Tyler Ardron, who will start at number eight, with Jamie Cudmore relinquishing the duties.

Canada are fielding their oldest RWC starting line-up ever, with the average age of the 15 players being 29 years and 206 days old.

Brothers Phil Mackenzie and Jamie Mackenzie, who were both left out of the 23 against Ireland, both start against Italy. It will be the first time they play together in a RWC match.

Canada: 15 Matt Evans, 14 Phil Mackenzie, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Connor Braid, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 10 Nathan Hirayama, 9 Jamie Mackenzie, 8 Tyler Ardron (c), 7 John Moonlight, 6 Nanyak Dala, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 2 Ray Barkwill, 1 Hubert Buydens
Replacements: 16 Aaron Carpenter, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Evan Olmstead, 20 Kyle Gilmour, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Conor Trainor, 23 Harry Jones

Date: Saturday, September 26
Venue: Elland Road, Leeds
Kick-off: 14:30 local (13:30 GMT)
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)