Canadian players given one final shot
Canada coach Ric Suggitt has chosen his squad for the forthcoming two-Test tour of New Zealand, including an 18-year-old prop and a former Auckland Grammar School boy.
The tour will sort out in Suggitt’s head who will eventually make the trip to France for Canada’s Rugby World Cup matches against Wales, Australia, Fiji and Japan.
The squad is young, and still fairly experimental in places, although a strong backbone of experience runs through it with several players in key position based in France.
Locks Mike James and Jamie Cudmore are both involved in the Top 14 final on Saturday, James for Stade Francais and Cudmore for Clermont, while Mike Burak, Justin Mensah-Coker, Mike Pyke, Morgan Williams, Ryan Smith, Colin Yukes, and Sean Michael-Stephen all play in France.
There are several players who play in the Magners League too, including Glasgow prop Kevin Tkatchuk and Cardiff Blues scrum-half Ed Fairhurst.
Most of the squad was involved in the Churchill Cup in England, which included a 59-23 defeat to the NZ Maori.
Prop Mauro Perizzolo, an 18-year-old wrestler from British Columbia, is the baby of the squad but is only in contention for the final tour match against a New Zealand Development XV – largely an Under-21 team – on June 23.
“Our second game against the U21 side is a wonderful opportunity for him see the standard we want him to play at and there is no better team to do that against,” coach Ric Suggitt said.
Suggitt, who is preparing his team for a World Cup campaign that sees his side pitted against Australia, Wales, Fiji and Japan, said the trip was primarily to sort out the final squad for France.
“This is by no means the World Cup squad. There could be six or seven changes to it,” Suggitt said.
“It’s a nerve-racking time for the players, and it’s they who are making selection decisions for us.”
The All Blacks have won all of their four previous matches against Canada: 43-10 in 1980, 29-13 in the 1991 World Cup quarter finals, 73-7 before the 1995 World Cup and 68-6 during the last World Cup’s pool play in Melbourne.
Canada touring squad: Mike Burak (Pau), Aaron Carpenter (Brantford), Jamie Cudmore (Clermont-Auvergne), Craig Culpan (Meraloma), Nanyak Dala (Wild Oats Saskatoon), Ed Fairhurst (Cardiff Blues), Scott Franklin (Castaway Wanderers), Nathan Hirayama (University of Victoria), Mike James (Stade Francais), Adam Kleeberger (University of Victoria), Stan McKeen (Cornish Pirates), Justin Mensah-Coker (Albi), Ander Monro (Waterloo), Mauro Perizzolo (Burnaby), Dan Pletch (Oakville Crusaders), Mike Pletch (Oakville Crusaders), James Pritchard (Bedford), Mike Pyke (Montauban), Pat Riordan (Burnaby Lake), Ryan Smith (Montauban), David Spicer (University of Victoria), Sean-Michael Stephen (Beziers), Luke Tait (Overmach Parma), Kevin Tkachuk (Glasgow Warriors), Nick Trenkel (Capilano R.F.C.), Dean Van Camp (Aurora Barbarians), Mike Webb (Swilers), Morgan Williams (Albi), Colin Yukes (Agen), DTH Van der Merwe (James Bay).
