Canada captain Tyler Ardron back to face Italy
Thursday 24 September 2015 16:29, UK
Canada captain Tyler Ardron was recalled to the side in one of six changes for the World Cup Pool D match against Italy in Leeds on Saturday.
Ardron, who missed the opening 50-7 defeat by Ireland, returns at No 8 and brothers Phil and Jamie Mackenzie, both left out of the match-day squad against Ireland, start against the Italians.
Jebb Sinclair will partner Jamie Cudmore in the second row and Connor Braid was named at inside centre.
Meanwhile, five weeks after announcing his international retirement, James Pritchard is back in the Canada squad after accepting a call-up as an injury replacement.
The 36-year-old full-back, who is the country's record scorer with 607 points, took the place of Liam Underwood in Canada's squad after the winger was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury sustained in the Ireland game.
Pritchard ended his international career after failing to make coach Kieran Crowley's World Cup squad, but said he would be available if an opportunity arose at the tournament.
Crowley said: "Now they might stop the 'Bring back Pritch' bandwagon that was going on."
Pritchard did not have far to travel as he is currently playing in England with Bedford.
Canada: 15 Matt Evans. 14 Phil Mackenzie, 14 Phil Mackenzie, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Connor Braid, 11 DTH Van Der Merwe, 10 Nathan Hirayama, 9 Jamie Mackenzie, 1 Hubert Buydens, 2 Ray Barkwill, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 5 Jamie Cudmore, 6 Nanyak Dala, 7 John Moonlight, 8 Tyler Ardron (captain).
Replacements: 16 Aaron Carpenter, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Evan Olmstead, 20 Kyle Gilmour, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Conor Trainor, 23 Harry Jones.
