Match Preview – England Academy vs Canada ‘A’

Canada will continue their four-match UK tour with a mid-week friendly pitting their ‘A’ side against England Academy at Cobham RFC on Wednesday. It was the senior England side who came out on top by 27-19 in Sunday’s test, and Canada will be hoping to follow the USA’s success against the Academy side a week ago.

Several players from both sides will have met previously in the u20 Tri-Nations Cup held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, earlier this year. England will start Detysha Harper, Rosie Galligan, and Ellie Green, with Akina Gondwe and Lilian Stoeger-Goddard on the bench.

Leading the Academy side is Rowena Burnfield, a veteran with more than 40 test caps. Other senior internationals in the side include tighthead prop Sasha Acheson, flanker Poppy Leitch, midfielder Lauren Cattell, and reserve halfback Caity Mattinson.

Two Canadian forwards also started in the test match, namely second row Tyson Beukeboom and No8 Cindy Nelles. World Cup scrumhalf Lori Josephson captains the ‘A’ side that otherwise features a youthful backline including 18-year-old flyhalf Taylor Black. Sara Svoboda is named in the midfield having been largely used as a flanker previously.

Brittany Kassil starts at loosehead prop making it four World Cup reps in the run-on side with another two on the bench in Olivia DeMerchant and Brianna Miller. u20 standout Abby Duguid partners Beukeboom at lock and PEI’s Alysha Corrigan makes her first international appearance on the wing.

Kickoff is set for 7:30pm local time, 2:30pm Eastern. There is no broadcast planned at the time of writing.

ENGLAND ACADEMY
1 Detysha Harper, 2 Clara Nielson, 3 Sasha Acheson, 4 Rowena Burnfield (capt.), 5 Rosie Galligan, 6 Katherine Hobson, 7 Poppy Leitch, 8 Elizabeth Crake, 9 Megan Davey, 10 Ellie Green, 11 Georgie Lingham, 12 Lauren Cattell, 13 Shauna Bennett, 14 Olivia Jones, 15 Merryn Doidge

Replacements: 16 Hannah West, 17 Akina Gondwe, 18 Chloe Edwards, 19 Amelia Buckland-Hurry, 20 Rianna Manson, 21 Caity Mattinson, 22 Lizzie Goulden, 23 Lilian Stoeger-Goddard

CANADA ‘A’
1 Brittany Kassil, 2 Gillian Boag, 3 Maude Laliberté, 4 Abby Duguid, 5 Tyson Beukeboom, 6 Ngalula Fuamba, 7 Chanelle Edwards-Challenger, 8 Cindy Nelles, 9 Lori Josephson (capt.), 10 Taylor Back, 11 Alysha Corrigan, 12 Tausani Levale, 13 Sara Svoboda, 14 Emily Samek, 15 Irene Patrinos

Replacements: 16 Mackenzie Carson, 17 Veronica Harrigan, 18 Emily Tuttosi, 19 Olivia DeMerchant, 20 Courtney Holtkamp, 21 Brianna Miller, 22 Anaïs Holly, 23 Sabrina Poulin

Date: Wednesday, November 21
Kick-off: 19:30 local (11:30 Pacific, 14:30 Eastern)
Venue: Old Surbitonians Memorial Ground, Cobham
Broadcasts: n/a