Canucks change just one
Canada promoted veteran centre Ryan Smith to the starting line-up for Friday’s match against the Australian Barbarians.
Smith replaces Mike Scholz, who has a minor shoulder injury, in the only change to the Canada line-up that beat the United States 27-7 earlier this month.
Canada’s coach, New Zealander Kieran Crowley, said Wednesday his team would use the game to gauge its performance ahead of the upcoming World Cup.
“It’s not a Test match, but it’s pretty close. It’s going to be a really good measure for us,” Crowley said.
The match will mark the 40th caps for captain Pat Riordan and Australian-born fullback James Pritchard.
“We have to play the ball more,” Crowley said.
“We have to get more possession. We averaged 36 percent over the two games against the US and you can’t go into the World Cup with that sort of possession.”
Crowley’s team is excited to challenge itself against an opposition of the Barbarians’ caliber and said there were clear objectives to be achieved.
“They’re excited about it,” Crowley said. “Obviously you want to win, but a good result will be if the stuff we trained on shows in the game and if we’re able to construct some chances.”
Canada: 15 James Pritchard, 14 Ciaran Hearn, 13 DTH van der Merwe, 12 Ryan Smith, 11 Phil Mackenzie, 10 Ander Monro, 9 Ed Fairhurst, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Chauncey O’Toole, 6 Adam Kleeberger, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Jason Marshall, 2 Pat Riordan (captain), 1 Hubert Buydens.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Hamilton, 17 Scott Franklin, 18 Tyler Hotson, 19 Nanyak Dala, 20 Sean White, 21 Conor Trainor, 22 Nathan Hirayama.
Date: Friday, August 26
Venue: Skilled Park, Gold Coast
Kick-off: 20.05 AEST (10.05 GMT)
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant referees: Damien Mitchelmore (Australia), Stephen Hill (Australia)
SAPA-AP
