Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
An unprecedented run of eight games on the road will come to the end for the Toronto Arrows on Saturday as they head to Salt Lake for a match against the Utah Warriors. The last time they visited it was an exhibition contest a year ago that saw the Arrows claiming a 24-20 win, their first as a franchise. That game was played in front of nearly 5,000 at Rio Tinto Stadium. This time the contest will take place at nearby Zions Bank Stadium, with the Warriors determined to level the score.
Despite falling to the SaberCats last Thursday, Alf Daniels has kept the faith with only two changes made to the side. Brazil’s kicker extraordinaire Josh Reeves starts his second match in place of James Semple, and Tonata Lauti is restored in the right wing in place of Josh Anderson.
Otherwise the run-on side is identical with Jeremy Leber continuing to deputise at hooker and Don Pati getting his second start at fullback. Two changes on the bench see the return of Ara Elkington just a week after his wife gave birth, and Nolan Tuamoheloa take the roster spot of Anderson.
Toronto enjoyed a bye week to refresh and have also limited their changes to two. AJ Quattrin suffered a minor leg injury against New York so it’s Steven Ng who gets his first Major League Rugby start with another age-grade international in Jack McRogers set to make his debut from the bench.
Teenage sensation Avery Oitomen returns on the left wing with Gastón Mieres shifting to fullback and Shawn Windsor dropping out. Three Canadian internationals settle for spots among the reserves – Jamie Mackenzie and Theo Sauder will make their professional debuts with Kainoa Lloyd’s only previous match the opening game against NOLA.
[EDIT: A late change sees Jack Nay dropping out, Kolby Francis starting at No8, and Tom van Horne promoted to the bench.]
The Arrows have dropped four games on their road trip but only the blizzard in Glendale was by greater than 5 points. Utah are winless in five and struggled badly in the scrum against Houston, an area where Toronto have shown dominance. Look for the set piece and the depth on the bench to secure another Arrows win over the Warriors.
Kickoff is set for 2pm local time, 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern. A local broadcast will be available in Utah on KMYU, with ESPN+ carrying the game nationwide. GameTV will broadcast in Canada with a Facebook stream also available for Canadian and international viewers.
UTAH WARRIORS
1 Franco van den Berg, 2 Jeremy Leber, 3 Angus MacLellan, 4 Saia Uhila, 5 Matt Jensen, 6 Jackson Kaka, 7 Lance Williams, 8 John Cullen, 9 Sione Ika, 10 Josh Reeves, 11 Fetu’u Vainikolo, 12 Tim O’Malley (capt.), 13 Gannon Moore, 14 Tonata Lauti, 15 Don Pati
Replacements: 16 Blake Burdette, 17 Huluholo Mo’ungaloa, 18 Ara Elkington, 19 Arthur Bergo, 20 Alex Tucci, 21 Nolan Tuamoheloa, 22 Jeremy Misailegalu, 23 Joseph Nicholls
TORONTO ARROWS
1 Rob Brouwer, 2 Steven Ng, 3 Morgan Mitchell, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Lucas Rumball (co-capt.), 7 Peter Milazzo, 8 Kolby Francis, 9 Andrew Ferguson, 10 Sam Malcolm, 11 Dan Moor (co-capt.), 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Spencer Jones, 14 Avery Oitomen, 15 Gastón Mieres
Replacements: 16 Jack McRogers, 17 Cole Keith, 18 Tom Dolezel, 19 Tom van Horne, 20 Marcello Wainwright, 21 Jamie Mackenzie, 22 Kainoa Lloyd, 23 Theo Sauder
Date: Saturday, March 30
Venue: Zions Bank Stadium, Herriman
Kickoff: 14:00 local (13:00 Pacific, 16:00 Eastern)
Referee: Paul-Henri Courbier (USAR)
Assistants: Moe Chaudhry (RC) & Cam Pettit (USAR)
Broadcasts: ESPN+, Facebook, GameTV, KMYU
