Bay Brian Lowe, Date: 14/10/15
Photo credit: Carolyn Ritchie
Toronto, Ont. – (October 13, 2015) – The Team Canada Wolverines will travel to Philadelphia for the final game of the Colonial Cup series against the USARL Hawks on Sunday, October 18th with six different players to the team that defeated the Hawks last month 36-28.
While the spine of the team remains unchanged, there were some selection surprises after gaining their first ever win on US soil.
Included in the Wolverines’ lineup for the first time is an Alberta Broncos’ representative Lawrence Ross, who will be joined by British Columbia’s Alex Boyd and Jamie Kelly who will all make their debuts.
Canada Wolverines coach Jamie Lester commented, “It was great to get a win first up, but there are some key areas that we need to improve in. This has provided an opportunity for some new players to join the team with the intent to enhance our performance.
“While our major focus right now is to win the Colonial Cup, it’s also a great opportunity for our coaching team to see different players perform at the highest level prior to the World Cup Qualifiers. I have a lot of faith in this squad and I’m excited to see them in action.”
Meanwhile, USARL Hawks coach Peter Illfield is confident that the Hawks can flip the tables on their archrivals in Game 2 of the series. “I’ll be very surprised if we don’t turn things around and beat them by 20 points,” he earlier told Rugby League Planet. “We’ve got some injuries, so will make a couple of changes. It was more about execution. We need to enhance the strategy that we have and get better execution.”
The Wolverines go into the two-game series with an 8 point differential lead. A win for Canada would result in a series clean sweep for the 13th ranked Canada Wolverines, however, a win by more than 8 points would see the Colonial Cup heading south of the border to the 10th ranked USARL Hawks.
Team Canada Wolverines squad:
1 Robin Legault (Toronto Centurions), 2 Tony Felix (Toronto Centurions), 3 Jon Cregg (Toronto Centurions), 4 Eddie Bilborough (Toronto City Saints), 5 Billy Gemmell (Brantford Broncos), 6 Matt Wyles (Toronto Centurions), 7 Steve Piatek (Brantford Broncos), 8 Enoch Wamalwa (Toronto City Saints), 9 Michael Cregg (Toronto Centurions), 10 Antoine Blanc (Toronto City Saints), 11 Alex Boyd (Capilano Cougars), 12 Christian Miller (Brantford Broncos), 13 Jamie Kelly (Surrey Beavers), 14 Denny McCarthy (Burlington Centaurs), 15 Eric Moyer (Brantford Broncos), 16 JT Rowbotham (Toronto Centurions), 17 Lawrence Ross (Alberta Broncos)
Coach: Jamie Lester
Manager: Paul Buchanan
