Canadians Collide at Castle Park

Two Canadian battle wagons will go head-to-head at Doncaster’s Castle Park on Sunday in the first round of the Greene King IPA Championship playoffs. Jebb Sinclair starts in the second row for London Irish with long-time international teammate Aaron Carpenter part of the welcoming committee and wearing No 8 for the Knights. With more than 100 caps and five World Cups worth of experience between them it’s the Canadian equivalent of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object.

Sunday’s match is the first of the two-match home-and-home playoff series that is set to be discarded from the Championship next season, with its critics citing the massive recruitment delay for clubs seeking promotion to the Premiership as an unreasonable disadvantage. London Irish finished the regular season with a record of 19 wins from 20 games and a full 17 points above second place Yorkshire Carnegie, yet must now defeat Doncaster and then either Carnegie or Ealing Trailfinders on aggregate to guarantee promotion. Under the incoming system they would have secured their position a month ago.

Also worth nothing is that only two teams taking part in the playoffs are eligible for promotion – Irish and Carnegie – with both Doncaster and Ealing preferring to stay in the Championship next season for financial reasons. The result is that should either Doncaster or Ealing pull through as underdogs there would be no promotion and Bristol would remain in the Premiership.

Of course the mostly likely scenario, on paper, is that Irish as heavy favorites advance without issue. Of the two sides named for Sunday’s clash there is a significant disparity in experience with six Irish starters having played Super Rugby and the same number full internationals. Two-time World Cup winner Ben Franks starts at tighthead with former Samoan captain Ofisa Treviranus at the back of the scrum. Giant teenager Joe Cokanasiga, named in England’s touring squad to Argentina last week, prowls on the left wing with Fijian international Asaeli Tikoirotuma in the midfield.

Meanwhile Carpenter is the only full international named in the Doncaster side. Two players named in the Championship Dream Team – second row Glen Young and fullback Paul Jarvis – are present but they are absent outstanding Tongan flanker Jack Ram, who misses out with injury. The team is captained by former England u21 flanker Michael Hills, the only player in the team with Premiership experience.

The two sides will be familiar with each other having played at Castle Park just two weeks ago, where Irish came away 22-5 winners in the last round of the regular season. Irish also won their first meeting of the season by a score of 19-0 in September. Sunday’s match kicks off at 3pm local time, 10am Eastern and will be broadcast on Sky Sports Two.

DONCASTER KNIGHTS
1 Richard List, 2 Ben Hunter, 3 Colin Quigley, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Glen Young, 6 Alex Shaw, 7 Michael Hills (capt.), 8 Aaron Carpenter, 9 Michael Heaney, 10 Simon Humberstone, 11 Tyson Lewis, 12 Lloyd Hayes, 13 Andrew Bulumakau, 14 Dougie Flockhart, 15 Paul Jarvis

Replacements: 16 Jack Bergmanas, 17 David Nelson, 18 WillGriff John, 19 Jarad Williams, 20 Mat Clark, 21 Sam Edgerley, 22 Declan Cusack

LONDON IRISH
1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 2 David Paice (capt.), 3 Ben Franks, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Jebb Sinclair, 6 Mike Coman, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 James Marshall, 11 Joe Cokanasiga, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 13 Asaeli Tikoirotuma, 14 Alex Lewington, 15 Tommy Bell

Replacements: 16 David Porecki, 17 Tom Court, 18 Oli Hoskins, 19 George Robson, 20 Conor Gilsenan, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Greig Tonks