Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The first game of what is being dubbed ‘Super Sunday’ is a mouth-watering clash between the two metropolitan rivals. Rugby United New York will travel across enemy lines to take on the Toronto Arrows at their downtown venue of Lamport Stadium. With ideal weather on the forecast there should be a strong crowd on hand to set the stage for a titanic battle.
After a rocky start to their inaugural campaign, the Arrows are right where they want to be. Six wins in a row puts them just one short of the mark set by Glendale in 2018.
With four teams dead even on points and vying for three Semi Final spots, the stakes make for compelling viewing. Whoever wins in Toronto will live to play another week, and could conceivably earn a home Semi Final. The loser will be forced to sweat it out for the rest of the day to see the results of two other important contests.
As expected it’s a virtually unchanged Arrows side following their demolition job on the Raptors last Sunday. The only alteration to the match day 23 sees Jamie Mackenzie returning from injury to start at scrumhalf, with Andrew Ferguson swapping to the bench.
New York are also on a bit of a roll having won three of their last four, all at home. They have also opted for just one change to the run-on side with Trevor Cassidy tagging in for Alex MacDonald at lock. Paddy Ryan has been under an injury cloud but is listed to start at tighthead prop, at least for now.
There are four significant changes to the bench. Callum Mackintosh and Change Wenglewski are named as front row subs with Sean McNulty and Chris Sullivan dropping out. James Denise and Chris Mattina return after several weeks on the sidelines but there is no place for Kyle Sumsion or Luke Hume.
The first regular season match between the two sides saw RUNY stealing a last-gasp 24-21 victory in Brooklyn. This time home field advantage goes to the Arrows, and with momentum in their favor it’s the Canadian side who the pundits are backing though the margin is small.
Kickoff is set for 1pm local time, 10am Pacific. ESPN+ will carry the game nationwide, with GameTV broadcasting in Canada. A live stream will also be available on the Arrows Facebook page.
TORONTO ARROWS
1 Rob Brouwer, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 3 Morgan Mitchell, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Peter Milazzo, 7 John Moonlight, 8 Luke Campbell, 9 Jamie Mackenzie, 10 Sam Malcolm, 11 Leandro Leivas, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Spencer Jones, 14 Dan Moor (capt.), 15 Gastón Mieres
Replacements: 16 Steven Ng, 17 Pat Lynott, 18 Cole Keith, 19 Tom van Horne, 20 Marcello Wainwright, 21 Andrew Ferguson, 22 Patrick Parfrey, 23 Kainoa Lloyd
RUGBY UNITED NEW YORK
1 James Rochford, 2 Dylan Fawsitt, 3 Paddy Ryan, 4 Trevor Cassidy, 5 Nate Brakeley, 6 John Quill, 7 Matt Hughston, 8 Ross Deacon, 9 Mike Petri (capt.), 10 Cathal Marsh, 11 Connor Wallace-Sims, 12 Will Leonard, 13 Mark O’Keeffe, 14 Mike St. Claire, 15 Ben Foden
Replacements: 16 Callum Mackintosh, 17 Anthony Parry, 18 Chance Wenglewski, 19 Alex MacDonald, 20 James Denise, 21 Harry Bennett, 22 Chris Mattina, 23 Marcus Satavu
Date: Sunday, June 2
Venue: Lamport Stadium, Toronto
Kickoff: 13:00 local (10:00 Pacific)
Referee: Elgan Williams (WRU)
Assistants: Moe Chaudhry (RC) & Peter Pender (RC)
Broadcasts: ESPN+, Facebook, GameTV
