Canada announced that they had excluded all time points
leader James Pritchard from their world cup provisional squad. The Canadians
who lost 41-23 to their bitter North American Rivals USA on the weekend, were
without Pritchard 36, who became only the 20th player to reach 600
points earlier this year at the Pacific Nations cup loss to Samoa. The
Australian born fullback was a surprise exclusion as a veteran of the last 3
world cups since making his debut for Canada in 2002.
The loss to the US means Canada remain winless in 2015.
Replacing Pritchard to kick the points was scrum half Gordon McRorie who missed
two penalties, worrying as the World Cup looms. The question asked by many will be who can
capitalize from the tee.
Canada still wait on the fitness of Captain Tyler Ardron who
sat out the US clash, as well as Jamie Cudmore, Tom Dolezel and Jebb Sinclair.
Canada will also want to figure out quickly how to utilize the members of their
7’s Gold winning team. Those who won on home soil this past month in Toronto at
the Pan Am games, Fly-Half Nathan Hirayama, Fullback Nathan Jones, Flanker John
Moonlight and Centre John Trainor, all started against the USA.
