Canada, Russia make history
For the first time ever Canada and Russia will meet in a rugby Test when the two sides play at Swangard Stadium, Burnaby in British Columbia on Saturday.
Both sides come off a loss, the Russians’ more significant.
Canada lost two Tests, both by substantial margins, to Japan in japan while the Russians lost 30-16 to the British Columbia Bears on Tuesday.
Canada lost two players through injury in Japan – Bryn Keys and Nanyak Dala. As a result James Pritchard has moved from fullback to inside centre. He is experienced enough but there are several rookies in the side – Chauncey O’Toole starts for the first time, Sean White for the second time. Normally a flyhalf Nathan Hirayama plays fullback for the first time. Then on the bench there are uncapped Tom Dolezel, Brian Erchisen, Mark MacSween and Mike Scholz.
The Russian team to play Canada is nearer their first-choice team which is preparing for the European nations Cup and which has, through that competition, fairly realistic hopes of making the final round of the World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
Russia’s assistant coach Steve Diamond, who has previously coached at Sale Sharks, said: “This is so important to be able to play a team the calibre of Canada, as it will really help us prepare for our qualifying and hopefully make us a better team.”
Teams:
Canada: 15 Nathan Hirayama, 14 Sean Duke, 13 Matt Evans, 12 James Pritchard, 11 Justin Mensah-Coker, 10 Ander Monro, 9 Sean White, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Adam Kleeberger, 6 Chauncey O’Toole, 5 Tyler Hotson, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 2 Pat Riordan (captain), 1 Kevin Tkachuk,
Replacements: 16 Mike Pletch, 17 Dan Pletch, 18 Tom Dolezel, 19 Brian Erichsen, 20 Mark MacSween, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Mike Scholz
Russia: 15 Igor Klyuchnikov, 14 Vasily Artemyev, 13 Mikhail Babaev, 12 Sergey Trishin, 11 Alexander Gvozdovskiy, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Alexander Shakirov, 8 Alexey Panasenko, 7 Evgeny Marveev, 6 Victor Gresev, 5 Artem Fatakhov, 4 Alexander Voytov, 3 Evgeny Pronenko, 2 Vlad Korshunov (captain), 1 Alexander Khrokin,
Replacements: 16 Sergey Bazhenov, 17 Valdimir Botvinnikov, 18 Alexey Travkin, 19 Andrey Garbuzov, 20 Alexander Yanyushkin, 21 Alexey Koroberynikov, 22 Andrey Kuzin
Date: Saturday, 28 November 2009
Kick-off: 15.00 (local time)
Venue: Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, British Columbia
Expected weather conditions: 60% chance of rain with a high of 10°C
Referee: Chris Henshall (US)
Assistant referees: Tom Lyons (USA), Davey Ardrey (USA)
