Head Coach Kieran Crowley has announced his squad for the 2015 world cup as reported by Planet Rugby.
The 31-man team is made of players from 7 provinces with the majority coming from rugby hotbeds Ontario (11) and British Columbia (10). Crowley also selected Richard Thorpe, who is from Beckenham, England.
The team will be captained by welsh side Ospreys’ Tyler Ardron, who will be making his world cup debut, like many others in the squad. Canada will bring a relatively young group, 18 of which will be making their World Cup debut in England and Wales.The Canadian squad has only a combied 650 test caps between all 31 players. This is made more noticeable the absence of 57 cap and 3 time World Cup veteran James Pritchard being cut from the squad.
Head coach Crowley wasn’t fazed when answering questions on his captain and the lack of experience in the squad however.
“Tyler is part of the leadership group at Ospreys and
captained them during the Six Nations this year. He’s young but will call on
the experience of Jamie Cudmore, Aaron Carpenter, Hubert Buydens and DTH Van
Der Merwe, who all have World Cup experience, to help provide leadership,”
Cudmore will become only the fifth Canadian to play at four World Cups this autumn. While Carpenter and Van Der Merwe will be entering their third World Cup.
Crowley himself is no stranger to the World Cup. He enters into his second world cup as a coach, having taken part twice as a player and winning the inaugural competition with the New Zealand All Blacks in 1987. The New Zealander spoke highly of his veterans.
“They bring a wealth of experience,” Jamie’s been
around a long time and Jebb Sinclair and Jason Marshall were both in the last
World Cup. You can’t beat experience and it will add a lot to the group. For
all of the players selected, the World Cup represents rugby’s greatest stage
and we have an opportunity to uphold Canada’s history dating back to
1987.”
Crowley is also taking 4 members of the Gold winning team at the Pan Am games 7’s tournament, Fly-Half Nathan Hirayama, Fullback Nathan Jones, Flanker John Moonlight and Centre John Trainor.
Canada’s Rugby World Cup 31-man squad: Tyler Ardron, Ray Barkwill, Brett Beukeboom, Nick Blevins, Connor Braid, Hubert Buydens, Aaron Carpenter, Jamie Cudmore, Nanyak Dala, Matt Evans, Kyle Gilmour, Jeff Hassler, Ciaran Hearn, Nathan Hirayama, Harry Jones, Phil Mack, Jamie Mackenzie, Phil Mackenzie, Jason Marshall, Gordon McRorie, John Moonlight, Evan Olmstead, Benoit Piffero, Djustice Sears-Duru, Jebb Sinclair, Richard Thorpe, Andrew Tiedemann, Conor Trainor, Liam Underwood, DTH van der Merwe, Doug Wooldridge.
