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It was 18 years ago on this day – June 29 – that Canada hosted the USA at Fletcher’s Fields in the first of their 2002 Rugby World Cup Qualifier series. The result would prove decisive, with the winner going on to comfortably secure the Americas 1 place at the following year’s tournament in Australia.
Canada were in rare form heading into what was their second match of the year. They had upset a very respectable Scotland team in Vancouver just two weeks earlier, and showed a settled team with Cardiff lock John Tait’s return the only change to the starting lineup.
Future captain Mark Lawson would make his test debut as a replacement hooker with Perpignan No8 Phil Murphy settling for an impact sub role. The presence of Ed Fairhurst and Bob Ross on the bench gave the Maple Leafs two quality sets of halfbacks to call on.
By contract the Eagles were a week removed from a heavy defeat to the Scots in San Francisco. Philippe Farner and Olo Fifita were brought in to bolster the pack and the team was without one of their best players in center Philip Eloff.
Australian age-grade rep Mike Hercus was playing just his second test with left winger David Fee on debut. Brazilian-born center Cayo Nicolau won his first cap off the bench in what would be a short-lived international career with Utah Warriors GM Kimball Kjar also among the replacements.
CANADA
1 Rod Snow, 2 Pat Dunkley, 3 Jon Thiel, 4 John Tait, 5 Mike James, 6 Al Charron (capt.), 7 Danny Baugh, 8 Ryan Banks, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Jared Barker, 11 Sean Fauth, 12 John Cannon, 13 Nik Witkowski, 14 Fred Asselin, 15 Winston Stanley
Replacements: 16 Mark Lawson, 17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Phil Murphy, 19 Adam van Staveren, 20 Ed Fairhurst, 21 Bob Ross, 22 Marco Di Girolamo
USA
1 Mike MacDonald, 2 Kirk Khasigian, 3 Dan Dorsey, 4 Philippe Farner, 5 Luke Gross, 6 Olo Fifita, 7 Kort Schubert, 8 Dave Hodges (capt.), 9 Kevin Dalzell, 10 Michael Hercus, 11 David Fee, 12 Link Wilfley, 13 Jason Keyter, 14 Jone Naqica, 15 Mose Timoteo
Replacements: 16 Chris Miller, 17 John Tarpoff, 18 Eric Reed, 19 Conrad Hodgson, 20 Kimball Kjar, 21 Cayo Nicolau, 22 John Buchholz
Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland)
Assistants: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales) & Donal Courtney (Ireland)
Attendance: 2,200
