This week marks the first week of international play taking players away from PRO Rugby. From Ohio, Kyle Baillie and Angus MacLellan will be missing (Shaun Davies is apart of the USA camp, but is listed as a reserve for this game). From San Diego, they will be missing Jake Ilnicki, Hubert Buydens, Joe Taufete’e, Taku Ngwenya, and Mikey Te’o.

San Diego is getting some more reinforcements this week. Zach Pangelinan has signed for the Breakers. Ohio also gets some reinforcements as Dom Waldouck is set to play for the first time this year and Riekert Hattingh joins the team fresh off an appearance in the D1 Club finals with the Austin Blacks.

San Diego is going to have to rely on the boot of Kurt Morath once again. They’ve lost a couple play makers and need to see if they can make up for it. If they can’t and Ohio doesn’t commit that many mistakes, expect a long day for the Breakers.

Ohio is going to rely on their forward pack as usual. They don’t lose that much as Demecus Beach has played well this year. There are two question marks for this Aviator team. One, how will the back row of the pack react to switching up. Matt Hughston is moving to center this game to provide some cover. Sebastian Kalm is moving to flanker and Riekert Hattingh takes over at the Number 8. The second question is going to be about the kicking game. When JP Eloff went down, Shaun Davies stepped up. When Davies got a yellow card against San Francisco, Robbie Shaw stepped up. The kicking game could be a deciding factor in this game, so whoever they have kicking needs to be up to the task.

Expect a physical game between these two teams. If San Diego can keep the ball away from Ohio and execute, they should win the game. If Ohio can find a kicking game and let Spike Davis and the front pack go to work, expect the Aviators to fly away with this game.

Rosters

San Diego Breakers

Forwards: (1) Mason Peterson, (2) Mikey Sosene-Feagai, (3) Epi Kalamani, (4) Nikola Bursic, (5) Tai Tuisamosa, (6) Chris Turori, (7) Cecil Garber, (8) Sione Tuihalamaka

Backs: (9) Charlie Purdon, (10) Kurt Morath, (11) Tim Stanfill, (12) Andrew Suniula, (13) Ryan Matyas, (14) Pono Haitsuka, (15) Kalei Konrad

Reserves: (16) Kakalea Pule, (17) Brice Schilling, (18) Ian Carpenter, (19) David Dolinar, (20) Bruce Thomas, (21) Zach Pangelinan, (22) Arnold Merideth, (23) Ben Leatigaga

Ohio Aviators

Forwards: (1) Jaime Mackintosh, (2) Dylan Fawsitt, (3) Demecus Beach, (4) Pierce Dargan, (5) Ryan McTiernan, (6) Felippo Ferrarin, (7) Sebastian Kalm, (8) Riekert Hattingh

Backs: (9) Robbie Shaw, (10) Taylor Howden, (11) Alex Elkins, (12) Matt Hughston, (13) Dominic Waldouck, (14) Aaron Davis, (15) Allen Hanson

Reserves: (16) Dominic Pezzutti, (17) Peter Malcom, (18) Zack Stryffeler, (19) Shaun Davies, (20) Chris Kunkel, (21) Derrek Van Klein, (22) Ryan Cochran, (23) Ahmad Harajly

Sunday June 12th, 2016

Obetz Memorial Park, Obetz Ohio

15:00, 3:oopm EST, 12:00pm PST, 7:oopm GMT

Game will be shown on Time Warner Cable in the Ohio region, otherwise it will be streamed on prorugby.org

Tickets can still be purchased here: http://bit.ly/1sa5qLd