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The Toronto Arrows have unveiled the latest group of signings for the 2020 Major League Rugby season. Along with seven returnees from their inaugural campaign, the 2019 Semi Finalists have added two new players in World Cup midfielder Ben LeSage and Canada u20 prop Tyler Rowland.
Approaching his 24th birthday, LeSage has won 16 caps since making his test debut against Romania in November 2016. He started against Italy in Japan but a broken hand ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. The Calgary native joins the professional ranks for the first time after completing an engineering degree at UBC, where he played with the highly successful Thunderbirds rugby program. LeSage was also a standout with the Prairie Wolf Pack in the Canadian Rugby Championship.
Rowland, just 20, was Canada’s starting tighthead prop at this year’s World Rugby u20 Trophy in Brazil. He returns to his home town after a brief stay at UBC, having also played club rugby with the Toronto Nomads. In 2017 he spent a month training at the Crusaders academy in New Zealand and captained Canada’s u18 side. At 6’3″ (1.90m) and 285lbs (130kg) he is of similar stature to Matt Tierney and is tipped to follow the fellow Ontario product to senior international honors.
Two World Cup participants have extended their stay with the Arrows. Second row Mike Sheppard appeared in all three of Canada’s matches at the tournament with scrumhalf Jamie Mackenzie playing in two. Sheppard was among the league’s best forwards in 2019 while Mackenzie appeared in half of Toronto’s games, missing the early part of the season on Americas Rugby Championship duty and the later part with injury.
Fellow Canadian internationals Rob Brouwer and Dan Moor also return for 2020. The 36-year-old Brouwer played in all but one match in 2019 and was considered unlucky by many not to be selected for the World Cup. Similarly Moor was left out despite captaining the Arrows to a 3rd overall finish and scoring seven tries while playing both outside center and wing.
Rounding out this batch of re-signings are loosehead prop Pat Lynott, scrumhalf Riley DiNardo, and utility back Johnny Sheridan. Lynott was a late addition to the squad and emerged as Brouwer’s backup, earning one start during the season. DiNardo was third choice behind Andrew Ferguson and Mackenzie but still managed 10 games, while Sheridan played in six games with four starts on the wing.
