PRO Week 3 – San Diego vs Denver

Two undefeated teams will go head-to-head at Torero Stadium on Sunday, as Denver take their California road show to San Diego. The visitors sit atop the freshly minted standings with two wins from two, while the home team showed real attacking prowess in their inaugural outing against Sacramento a week ago.

Ray Egan has made no changes to his San Diego lineup, rolling out an identical match day 23 to last week. Brian Doyle has recovered from the knock that saw him withdraw in the opening moments against Sacramento, while Kurt Morath has shown no ill-effects from a blow to the ribs. Canadian prop Jake Ilnicki and flying winger Taku Ngwenya are yet to arrive, while Joe Taufete’e is recovering from injury.

Denver meanwhile have retained the same forward pack that steamrolled the San Francisco scrum. Eagles prop Chris Baumann is fit again and included on the bench, and Glendale Raptors flanker Brian Wanless is called in for the first time. Wanless, an American football convert, has only a year’s experience in the game but looks an impressive athlete, particularly with ball in hand.

Two changes are made in the backs with both wings rotated out. Timana Tahu gets his first PRO start on the left wing, and Martin Knoetze returns on the right. Michael Al-Jiboori and Dustin Croy drop out. The bench returns to a 5-3 split, though both Wanless and Gannon Moore are capable of covering the outside backs if required.

This game is a classic contrast in styles, with Denver’s strength up front and San Diego’s out wide. Sacramento had the edge on San Diego in the scrum and Denver will surely try to exploit that, but must be wary of both the speed and creativity of the San Diego backline. If Denver can deny San Diego quality possession and maintain their defensive line speed, they could very well return home with two wins under their belt.

The match kicks off at 5pm local time and will be broadcast live on cable by ONE World Sport, and streamed on the web by AOL. Tickets are available via the University of San Diego.

SAN DIEGO
1 Hubert Buydens 2 Mike Sosene-Feagai 3 Sam Taungavaka 4 David Dolinar 5 Brian Doyle 6 Nikola Bursic 7 Cecil Garber 8 Sione Tu’ihalamaka 9 Charlie Purdon 10 Kurt Morath 11 Tim Stanfill 12 Phil Mackenzie (capt.) 13 Ryan Matyas 14 Pono Haitsuka 15 Mike Te’o

16 Tim Barford 17 Epeli Kalemani 18 Kakalia Pule 19 Tai Tuisamoa 20 Chris Turori 21 Tom Bliss 22 Kalei Konrad 23 Ben Leatigaga

DENVER
1 Luke White 2 Zach Fenoglio 3 Ben Tarr 4 Christian Wiessing 5 Casey Rock 6 Logan Collins 7 Peter Dahl 8 Pedrie Wannenburg (capt.) 9 Niku Kruger 10 Will Magie 11 Timana Tahu 12 Ata Malifa 13 Chad London 14 Martin Knoetze 15 Maximo de Achaval

16 Nick Wallace 17 Jake Turnbull 18 Chris Baumann 19 Gannon Moore 20 Brian Wanless 21 Mose Timoteo 22 Mike Garrity 23 Bobby Impson

Date: Sunday, May 1
Venue: Torero Stadium, San Diego
Kickoff: 17:00 local (18:00 MDT, 20:00 EDT)
Referee: Nick Ricono
Assistants: Leah Berard & Marc Nelson
Broadcasts: AOL.com (web stream) & ONE World Sport (cable)
Tickets: University of San Diego