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The 60th meeting between two North American rivals will take place in Atlantic Canada for just the second time and the first since the World Cup held in St. John’s in 2006. For Halifax and the province Nova Scotia it’s a first – the first ever test match, with the city previously hosting Canada for a 2015 World Cup warm-up friendly against the Glasgow Warriors.
On that occasion abject field conditions caused a scramble with the organizing committee forced to build a makeshift field of sufficient standards at Graves-Oakley Park in the distant south-west corner of the city. This time the field has been completely overhauled, with the match the first at the new Wanderers Grounds pop-up stadium in the city-center. A sell-out crowd of more than 6,000 will turn up on Saturday to watch the home team do battle with the new darlings of the international rugby world.
The Eagles produced their greatest performance since the 1924 Olympic Games by defeating Scotland last weekend. While the tourists were not at full strength in Houston it remains a massive accomplishment for a team that has improved dramatically in recent years. Their historic record against Canada reads only 19 victories and 2 draws from 59 matches but a more relevant statistic is their recent run – 7 wins and a draw, their last defeat to their northern neighbors coming in August 2013.
Three changes have been made to the USA’s run-on side. Joe Taufete’e has returned to the UK for personal reasons with John Quill ruled out through injury suffered against the Scots. Dylan Fawsitt starts at hooker with another Glendale Raptor in Ben Landry taking the blindside flank position in an intimidating back row trio beside Hanco Germishuys and Cam Dolan.
One personnel change in the backs sees Nate Augspurger handed a start, albeit on the wing rather than his preferred scrumhalf position. Bryce Campbell is the one to drop out with Marcel Brache shifted to the midfield having started the two previous matches on the wing.
On the bench there is a return for Olive Kilifi while his Seattle Seawolves teammate Vili Toluta’u set to make his test debut as a replacement. Germishuys looks to be the reserve hooker option with three props named on the bench, though Chris Baumann has played the position in the past. Ruben de Haas is called up direct from captaining the Junior All-Americans and should win his 4th test cap.
Canada’s recent struggles are well document and their performance against Russia in Ottawa was well below even modest expectations. Kingsley Jones was clearly not impressed and has suitably dumped eight players from the starting lineup with his most experienced available roster named to face the Eagles.
Djustice Sears-Duru comes in at loosehead prop for his first start of the June series and Jake Ilnicki is recalled at tighthead. UK-based Matt Heaton takes over on the flank for Dustin Dobravsky with Lucas Rumball shifting to the blindside but retaining the captaincy.
The return of Phil Mack is notable. With his Seawolves team on a bye week he returns at scrumhalf where he will partner Shane O’Leary, the latter going head-to-head with former Connacht teammate AJ MacGinty. Ben LeSage and Patrick Parfrey start at outside center and fullback respectively with Ontario Arrows flyer Kainoa Lloyd handed his first match since the Americas Rugby Championship, coming in for Cole Davis on the left wing.
Despite playing at home Canada enter the match as heavy underdogs. They have won two from eight matches this year, against lowly Brazil and Chile during the ARC, while the Eagles are unbeaten with a perfect seven from seven record in 2018. Add in their recent head-to-head results and there is little to suggest that Canada have the ability to cause an upset.
Perhaps most relevant is the make-up of the two sides. The USA entered the June series with an entirely professional squad to choose from. Meanwhile 13 of the match day 23 – while on monthly stipends – play amateur club rugby in Canada.
All things considered this points to a one-sided result, though the injection of several professionals in the side and a passionate Halifax crowd could save Canada from a record score. Expect a the final to be similar to the 29-10 defeat suffered in Sacramento earlier this year.
Kickoff is set for 4pm local time, 3pm Eastern, noon Pacific. Viewers in the USA can watch on FloRugby while those elsewhere can access a live stream on the Rugby Canada Facebook page.
CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Ray Barkwill, 3 Jake Ilnicki, 4 Josh Larsen, 5 Evan Olmstead, 6 Lucas Rumball (capt.), 7 Matt Heaton, 8 Luke Campbell, 9 Phil Mack, 10 Shane O’Leary, 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Nick Blevins, 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Jeff Hassler, 15 Patrick Parfrey
Replacements: 16 Eric Howard, 17 Noah Barker, 18 Ryan Kotlewski, 19 Paul Ciulini, 20 Dustin Dobravsky, 21 Jorden Sandover-Best, 22 Guiseppe du Toit, 23 Theo Sauder
USA
1 Eric Fry, 2 Dylan Fawsitt, 3 Paul Mullen, 4 Samu Manoa, 5 Nick Civetta, 6 Ben Landry, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Shaun Davies, 10 AJ MacGinty, 11 Nate Augspurger, 12 Paul Lasike, 13 Marcel Brache, 14 Blaine Scully (capt.), 15 Will Hooley
Replacements: 16 Chris Baumann, 17 Titi Lamositele, 18 Olive Kilifi, 19 Greg Peterson, 20 Vili Toluta’u, 21 Ruben de Haas, 22 Will Magie, 23 Bryce Campbell
Date: Saturday, June 23
Venue: Wanderers Grounds, Halifax
Kickoff: 16:00 local (12:00 Pacific, 15:00 Eastern)
Referee: Alex Ruiz (FFR)
Assistants: Wayne Barnes (RFU) & Federico Anselmi (UAR)
TMO: Graham Hughes (RFU)
Broadcasts: FloRugby, Facebook
