Test Match Preview – England vs Canada

Canada will conclude their UK tour against England at Twickenham on Saturday. It’s the first test between the two sides since November of 2004. On that day the defending World Cup champions put a record 70-nil score on their North American guests.

This past weekend saw a similar result as Wales welcomed Canada back to international rugby with a 68-12 thrashing in Cardiff. Meanwhile England faced the USA in London on Sunday and found the Eagles decidedly more competitive, the end result 43-29 for the white shirts.

As expected Canada have lost forwards Tyler Rowland and Josh Larsen to injury. Reegan O’Gorman moves into the second row with Australia-born Corey Thomas set for his test debut on the blindside flank. Liam Murray could win his first cap as a replacement prop.

In the backs there is only one alteration as uncapped Lockie Kratz start in the midfield in place of Quinn Ngawati, who drops to the bench. It’s a conventional 5-3 split this week with Don Carson covering lock and no place for Lucas Albornoz.

Eddie Jones has made five changes to his run-on side, four of them new caps. Jamie Blamire is promoted to starting hooker after debuting against the USA with Leicester Tigers lock Harry Wells replacing Josh McNally. Harlequins No8 Alex Dombrandt makes a long-awaited debut having been part of the senior training squad ahead of the 2019 World Cup.

Both alterations to the backs are injury-enforced. Max Malins and Ollie Lawrence drop out with Newcastle’s Adam Radwan and Leicester’s Dan Kelly taking their place at left wing and inside centre respectively. The bench is also a 5-3 split with Northampton’s George Furbank and former Blues midfielder Joe Marchant added to cover the backs.

“Our focus this camp is being as strong a 36-player squad as we can be and there has been a lot of hard work and intense competition,” said Jones. “There is a responsibility on the 23 players selected to perform to their personal best. We want to go out there and put smiles on the faces on all the supporters watching at Twickenham and at home.”

Larsen’s experience will be missed for Canada up front, and while there were some positives against Wales there was little to suggest another week of training would improve chances against England. The power of Dombrandt up front and Joe Cokanasiga out wide will be difficult to contain. Expect another tough outing for the visitors.

Kickoff is set for 3pm local time, 10am Eastern, 7am Pacific. DAZN will broadcast live in Canada.

ENGLAND
1 Ellis Genge, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Harry Wells, 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Lewis Ludlow (capt.), 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 9 Harry Randall, 10 Marcus Smith, 11 Adam Radwan, 12 Dan Kelly, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 15 Freddie Steward

Replacements: 16 Curtis Langdon, 17 Beno Obano, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Callum Chick, 20 Lewis Ludlam, 21 Dan Robson, 22 George Furbank, 23 Joe Marchant

CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 3 Jake Ilnicki, 4 Reegan O’Gorman, 5 Conor Keys, 6 Corey Thomas, 7 Lucas Rumball (capt.), 8 Siaki Vikilani, 9 Ross Braude, 10 Peter Nelson, 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Lockie Kratz, 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Cole Davis, 15 Cooper Coats

Replacements: 16 Eric Howard, 17 Cole Keith, 18 Liam Murray, 19 Don Carson, 20 Michael Smith, 21 Quinn Ngawati, 22 Will Percillier, 23 Robbie Povey

Date: Saturday, July 10
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kickoff: 15:00 local (07:00 Pacific, 10:00 Eastern)
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistants: Pierre Brousset (France) & Chris Busby (Ireland)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Broadcasts: Channel 4 (UK), DAZN (Canada)

Historical Results
2004-11-13 – England 70, Canada 0 (Twickenham, London)
2001-06-09 – Canada 20, England 59 (Swangard Stadium, Canada)
2001-06-02 – Canada 10, England 22 (Fletcher’s Fields, Canada)
1999-08-28 – England 36, Canada 11 (Twickenham, London)
1994-12-10 – England 60, Canada 19 (Twickenham, London)
1992-10-17 – England 26, Canada 13 (Wembley Stadium, London)