Jeff Williams, Head Coach, announced the team to play Portugal in their opening game of the Rugby Junior World Trophy on Tuesday, August 28 in Bucharest. It includes Newfoundland's 17-year-old Campbell Clarke at outside half and Peter Ingoldsby from England at flanker, the two changes from the starting team versus USA in June

It promises to be a challenging start for Canada as Portugal are ranked second in the tournament and Canada ranked seventh, temperature at game time will be 32 degrees, and players will be recovering from a 17-hour trans-continental journey with a 10-hour time change. However, Canada have had the benefit of two excellent training camps in May/June and again in August, and pride themselves on the culture of hard work and teamwork that they have developed.

One player friendly change to which World Rugby have agreed is that all 26 players can dress, a maximum of eight can play, and the eight do not have to be designated a priori.

"The first game is critical as a win will provide impetus for the rest of the tournament," commented Williams. "We have a good team who have prepared well. Our objective is to play better in each successive game and hopefully the baseline set in the first game will be high.”



Kick off on Tuesday is 10am ET/7am PT and you can watch live at www.facebook.com/worldrugby/

Starting Roster:



1. Gavin Kratz – UVIC Vikes (Victoria, BC)

2. Jack McRogers – McMaster University (Toronto, ON)

3. Tyler Rowland – UBC Thunderbirds (Toronto, ON)

4. Reid Davis – Bayside RFC (Surrey, BC)

5. Quentin James – Perpignan (Vancouver, BC)

6. Peter Ingoldsby – Exmouth RFC (England)

7. James O’Neill – Captain,UVIC Vikes (Cochrane, AB)

8. Michael Smith – UBC Thunderbirds (Surrey, BC)

9. Will Percillier – UBC Thunderbirds (Victoria, BC)

10. Campbell Clarke – Swilers RFC (St. John’s, NL)

11. Jack McCarthy – Vandals RFC (St, John’s, NL)

12. Kevin Vertkas – UBC Thunderbirds (Toronto, ON)

13. Seth Purdey – UCal at Berkeley (Shawnigan Lake, BC)

14. Elias Ergas – UBC Thunderbirds (Vancouver, BC)

15. Brennig Prevost – UVIC Vikes (Victoria, BC)

16. Tyler Rockwell – James Bay AA (Calgary, AB)

17. Emerson Prior – Trent University (Toronto, ON)

18. Guershom Mukendi – Stoney Creek RFC (Mississauga, ON)

19. Owain Ruttan – UBC Thunderbirds (Toronto, ON)

20. Jackson Matthews – UVIC Vikes (Montreal, QC)

21. Brandon Schellenberger – Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)

22. Lachlan Kratz – Castaway Wanderers (Victoria, BC)

23. Josiah Morra – Toronto Saracens (Toronto, ON)

24. Tyler Duguid – Nor’Westers (Edmonton, AB)

25. Mitchell Wainman – (Banff, AB)

26. Gabriel Casey – Bytown Blues (Ottawa, ON)

Canada U20 Team for Junior World Trophy:



Canada’s schedule:



August 28 - Canada vs. Portugal

September 1 - Canada vs. Uruguay

September 5 - Canada vs Fiji

September 9 - Canada vs. TBC



Management:



Gethin Watts – Program Leader

Jeff Williams – Head Coach

Adam Roberts – assistant coach

Pat Parfrey – Manager

Kiyomi Thompson – Physiotherapist

Mylan Clairmont – Strength and Conditioning Coach

Derek Pue – Video Analyst

Shannon Houston – Doctor

U20 Support Group:

Karl Fix – Saskatchewan(Chair)

Andrew Purdey – BC

Mike Holmes – BC

David Robertson – BC

Bill Webb – Ontario

Pat Parfrey – Newfoundland



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