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This article was published 14/4/2015 (1986 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE PHOTO Brandon native Amanda Thornborough, centre, helped Canada win a silver medal at last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup. With experience on Canada’s 15s and sevens national teams, Thornborough is making another bid to make the national team this week.

When Amanda Thornborough attends a Rugby Canada camp this week, she knows it’s being held to replace her retiring national squad teammates.

For Thornborough, who has played for Canada’s seven- and 15-women teams, it’s an odd concept.

FILE PHOTO Emily Tuttosi of Souris is a former member of the Canadian U20 women’s rugby team and is making her first appearance at a Rugby Canada senior camp this week.

"It’s very strange, expecially when you get used to playing with the same girls for a couple of years," Thornborough said. "That’s the bittersweetness of the sport; it’s never the same team twice."

The Brandon native, who now lives in Victoria, will be joined by the Souris trio of Amanda Williams, Emily Tuttosi and Jodie Hicks at the national 15s camp, beginning today in Shawnigan Lake, B.C.

Rugby Canada has invited 80 players to a pair of camps, with 38 — including the Westmanites — at the western camp. The other 42 players will try out in Ontario later this month as Rugby Canada begins rebuilding for the 2017 World Cup.

In 2014, Thornborough helped Canada make its first-ever appearance on the podium at the World Cup with a silver medal. The team also has three fourth-place finishes.

The newcomers at camp will at least include some familiar faces for Thornborough. She has played with Williams and Hicks in Rugby Manitoba programs.

Tuttosi is making her first appearance at a senior camp after playing for the national U20 team for the Can-Am series. The 19-year-old University of Calgary student is finishing her second year and plays with the Dinos rugby team.

"It’s definitely a privilege and nothing that I’m going to take for granted," Tuttosi said. "To know that regardless of what the results are in this camp that I still have even just next year’s Dinos to work towards as well, I can always be getting better as an athlete and a player."

Williams and Hicks also have Canadian Interuniversity Sport experience after playing with the Dinos.

Thornborough will attend camp with an impressive university resumé as well.

The two-time national university champion with St. Francis Xavier University was the 2009 Atlantic University Sport rookie of the year, a conference all-star from 2009 to 2012 and the 2012 CIS championship game MVP before turning her attention to the national team program.

She is currently training with a group of other national team players and playing club rugby while working at the University of Victoria in admissions.

Thornborough said the national camp involves a couple of days of fitness testing, followed by passing and tackling assessment, three-on-two drills and finally intrasquad games. She’s done it all before, and Thornborough said she is ready to get going again.

"I’m very excited. I’m just anxious for Tuesday to happen and get the week started."

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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