Canada, on Tuesday, revealed its Rugby World Cup team with the hope that the inclusion of Jebb Sinclair and Jamie Cudmore will revive the team that has been defeated seven times in a row and has been 1-10 since the beginning of 2014. Canadian coach, Kieran Crowley, had earlier released a preliminary list of 35 players while he was awaiting the fitness report on Jason Marshall (knee), Taylor Paris (groin), Sinclair (knee), and Cudmore (concussion).
Only Paris, 22, was left out of the team. Unfortunately, the back, who assisted his club Agen to gain promotion to the top tier league in France, was included in the team that lost 41 – 23 to the United States on Saturday but he ended up with a knee injury. Similarly, prop Tom Dolezel did not make the final selection because of a broken arm.
Locks Jon Phelan and Tyler Hotson are fit but were not selected. Surprisingly, Canada’s all time points scorer, James Pritchard was not included in the list because the 36-year-old is deemed to be a bit too old to deliver the same type of results as the younger and more versatile players.
Canada is expected to play their first match in the World Cup against Ireland, ranked No. 2 in the world, on September 19 in Cardiff before matching out against Italy (ranked 15th), France (ranked 7th), and Romania (ranked 17th). Canadian rugby fans can still purchase tickets for Rugby World Cup 2015 final online, the join the live audience and cheer their team to victory.
Canada, currently occupies the 18th position on the rugby world ranking and is only ahead of two other teams participating in the championship: Uruguay and Namibia who occupy the 19th and 20th positions. Although Canada’s rugby team’s performance has not been impressive in recent times, the team has however qualified for every World Cup since its inception in 1987.
The team will travel to Halifax for a match with the Glasgow warriors on Saturday before moving on to England to play warm-up matches against Georgia and Fiji. Crowley’s team is strong at the back but lacks depth up front. He will miss Paris’ pace but the performance of strike runners like Phil Mackenzie, Van der Merwe and Jeff Hassler is meant to make up for his absence.
In recent times, the bulldozing centre, Nick Blevins has been very inspiring. Liam Underwood and Nathan Hirayama will play at fly half while Phil Mack and Gord McRorie will perform at scrum half. Ardron is supposed to anchor a back row with John Moonlight and Richard Thorpe who plays in England.
A lot of questions still surround the hooker. The previous captain, Aaron Carpenter, is a good runner. He covers the field effectively but he can’t match the throwing skills of Ray Barkwill, who is acclaimed to be an all-rounder and a dangerous forward.
Crowley is taking the Canadian team to the World Cup for the second time. He took over the team in 2008; and by January 2016, his current coaching contract will expire.
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