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Major League Rugby comes to Canada for the first time on Sunday when the Toronto Arrows host the NOLA Gold at York Alumni Field. It’s been a long road to this moment for the Arrows, and after eight consecutive road games to start their professional journey they will begin an eight-game home stand against the league’s best team.
After coming through the first half of the season with an even four wins and four losses, Toronto will look to step things up with a familiar lineup. The only changes to the side that ran out to a record win over Utah are the return of AJ Quattrin at hooker, and flanker John Moonlight starts for the first time since the opening game with Lucas Rumball moving to No8.
Otherwise it’s business as usual with teenage sensation Avery Oitomen on the wing and Uruguay’s Gastón Mieres earning his spot at fullback. There is plenty of firepower on the bench with four current Canadian internationals in Cole Keith, Jamie Mackenzie, Theo Sauder, and Kainoa Lloyd all present.
New Orleans are coming off a last-gasp defeat to Glendale and Nate Osborne has opted to freshen up his pack. Kyle Baillie switches to lock as US Eagles star Cam Dolan returns from injury at the back of the scrum. All-American flanker Kevin O’Connor gets his first MLR start at openside flanker after impressing off the bench against Austin.
The backline is almost identical to that of a week ago with the exception of Shawn Riley on the left wing, another first-time starter in place of Nick Feakes. Kevin Sullivan returns on the bench as loosehead prop cover and Cameron Troxler makes his third squad appearance of the season.
On paper it’s a very close match-up and projects to be the most contentious of the weekend. The experts have unanimously opted for Toronto as favorites with home field advantage at last in their favor and their previous encounter decided by only five points. Overcast but mild weather is on the forecast which leaves no barriers for this match to deliver on its promise.
Kickoff is set for 2pm local time, 11am Pacific. Viewers in the USA can watch on ESPN+, with GameTV broadcasting across Canada. A live stream will also be available on the Arrows Facebook page.
TORONTO ARROWS
1 Rob Brouwer, 2 AJ Quattrin, 3 Morgan Mitchell, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 John Moonlight, 7 Peter Milazzo, 8 Lucas Rumball, 9 Andrew Ferguson, 10 Sam Malcolm, 11 Dan Moor (capt.), 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Spencer Jones, 14 Avery Oitomen, 15 Gastón Mieres
Replacements: 16 Steven Ng, 17 Tom Dolezel, 18 Cole Keith, 19 Kolby Francis, 20 Marcello Wainwright, 21 Jamie Mackenzie, 22 Kainoa Lloyd, 23 Theo Sauder
NEW ORLEANS GOLD
1 Hubert Buydens, 2 Eric Howard (capt.), 3 Ben Tarr, 4 Kane Thompson, 5 Kyle Baillie, 6 Nikola Bursic, 7 Kevin O’Connor, 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Holden Yungert, 10 Scott Gale, 11 Shawn Riley, 12 Con Foley, 13 Tristan Blewett, 14 Tim Maupin, 15 JP Eloff
Replacements: 16 Doc Irey, 17 Cam Falcon, 18 Kevin Sullivan, 19 Ignacio Dotti, 20 Moni Tonga’uiha, 21 Zack Stryffeler, 22 Michael Baska, 23 Cameron Troxler
Date: Sunday, April 7
Venue: York Alumni Field, Toronto
Kickoff: 14:00 local (11:00 Pacific)
Referee: Scott Green (USAR)
Assistants: Moe Chaudhry (RC) & Michael Jones (RC)
Broadcasts: ESPN+, Facebook, GameTV
