Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The early bird catches the worm. While most Major League Rugby sides won’t begin their preseasons officially until November, the Glendale Raptors will dust off the boots again on Sunday as they travel to Toronto for a friendly against the Ontario Arrows. Of course it hasn’t actually been that long as many of them took the field in the Collegiate All-Americans trial match just a month ago.
Ontario are in a state of flux at the moment, awaiting the final ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ from MLR on their entry for the 2019 season. They haven’t assumed their Arrows form since May but most of the team played together with the Ontario Blues side in the Canadian Rugby Championship finals just three weeks ago.
It’s a rubber match of sorts. The Raptors were well beaten by the Blues at Burlington in April 2017, but then under the Merlins banner exacted their revenge at Infinity Park a year ago in the first ever match for the Arrows. The third sees Ontario again with home-field advantage.
Leading the Arrows out will be second row Mike Sheppard who finds himself surrounded by a familiar cast. There are four first-timers among the forwards. Atlantic Rock tighthead Cole Keith gets the start with fellow Canada prop Djustice Sears-Duru among the reserves. Canada Sevens regular Matt Mullins looks to re-start his XVs career at No8 and national u20 grad Steven Ng will debut from the bench as a replacement hooker.
Andrew Coe and Lucas Hammond are also shuttled in from the sevens arena. Coe is a dual international and is named at outside centre having been used primarily as a fullback previously. Hammond, also typically a fullback, is named on the left wing to make room for Shawn Windsor in the 15 jersey. The No10 spot goes to Patrick Parfrey, set to make his second Arrows appearance having debuted against the Merlins one year ago.
Glendale have scraped together a functional starting roster but there are still three players in the run-on side that did not feature in MLR and only one regular season participant among the reserves. Former Clemson standout Jason Damm is named on the blindside flank with Belmont Shore’s Matt Masoe on the openside. Another Clemson export, Colin Gregory, will start at fullback.
US Eagles regulars Shaun Davies and Will Magie will lead the team with new Americas Pacific Challenge select Mika Kruse the danger man in the midfield. John Ryberg and Harley Davidson are exciting attacking players on the wings. The bench, however, is almost entirely unknown to MLR fans.
Scrumhalf Carlo de Nysschen and outside back Siale Maka are moving up from the Raptors Academy while midfielder Campbell Johnstone is plucked from the Junior All-Americans. Max Lum, Tom Kacor, and Jonny Layne join after strong collegiate careers while hooker Ray Henley arrives from the local Denver Barbarians. Monte Gaddis is a professional football player attempting to make the switch to rugby.
While the match should be competitive in the early goings, this Raptors lineup does not have the depth to compete for a full 80 minutes against an Arrows lineup stacked with talent from top to bottom. Look for the home side to skip away with a tidy victory in the final quarter.
Kickoff is set for 1pm local, 11am Mountain. A live stream will be available on the Arrows Facebook page.
ONTARIO ARROWS
1 Rob Brouwer, 2 AJ Quattrin, 3 Cole Keith, 4 Mike Sheppard (capt.), 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Marcello Wainwright, 7 Peter Milazzo, 8 Matt Mullins, 9 Andrew Ferguson, 10 Patrick Parfrey, 11 Lucas Hammond, 12 Jamie Leveridge, 13 Andrew Coe, 14 Kainoa Lloyd, 15 Shawn Windsor
Replacements: 16 Steven Ng, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Mike Smith, 19 Tom van Horne, 20 Kolby Francis, 21 Johnny Sheridan, 22 Mitch Richardson, 23 Riley DiNardo
GLENDALE RAPTORS
1 Blake Rogers, 2 James Del Bozque, 3 Kelepi Fifita, 4 Luke White, 5 Kody O’Neil, 6 Jason Damm, 7 Matt Masoe, 8 Connor Cook, 9 Shaun Davies (capt.), 10 Will Magie, 11 Harley Davidson, 12 Ata Malifa, 13 Mika Kruse, 14 John Ryberg, 15 Colin Gregory
Replacements: 16 Max Lum, 17 Monte Gaddis, 18 Ray Henley, 19 Tom Kacor, 20 Jonny Layne, 21 Carlo de Nysschen, 22 Campbell Johnstone, 23 Siale Maka
Date: Sunday, September 16
Venue: York Lions Stadium, Toronto
Kickoff: 13:00 local (10:00 Pacific, 11:00 Mountain)
Broadcasts: Facebook
