Giant weekend of World Cup qualifiers
This weekend qualifying for the 2011 Rugby World Cup sees key games in both North America and Oceania, with the match-up in Edmonton, Canada likely to provide by far the closest challenge.
While Samoa start as overwhelming favourites in the first leg of their home-and-away play-off against Oceania Cup winners Papua New Guinea, staunch North American rivals USA and Canada are set for a nail-biting finale in Edmonton.
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The USA won the first leg of their tie at home in Charleston 12-6 last weekend but now face a huge challenge away from home.
Three years ago Canada overpowered their local rivals 56-7 in St John's to book their place at the 2007 event in France. Four years prior, they outscored the Eagles by 40 points over two qualifying matches and had not registered a loss against them since 2005 before last weekend.
"The last couple of years they've really had our number and we had some pretty dark days after some of those big defeats, and the squad's rallied," said man of the match in Charleston, 29-year-old Mike Hercus, for whom the 2011 event would be a final World Cup.
"It was a huge event for us, being the 4th July and a home game, and the boys really pulled together for a wonderful team performance.
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"The last two World Cups we've failed in our qualification attempts against Canada, so if we can get the victory on Saturday it's a completely different build-up and hopefully a sign of things to come."
The winner of the tie overall will qualify directly for the Rugby World Cup in Pool A along with New Zealand, France, Tonga and the top Asian qualifier. The loser will go on to play Uruguay over two more tricky ties.
"We can't get carried away because only half the job is done," added Hercus. "Given that it's on a points differential, six points isn't enough to go in thinking you're home and hosed so we have a big task ahead of us this weekend."
Following the regimes of Peter Thorburn and Scott Johnson, former Ireland boss Eddie O'Sullivan has now come in at the top of the coaching tree in the States.
"We are ignoring the six-point spread," said O'Sullivan. "We are going into this match like it is any other and are concentrating on playing the best game that we can.
"We have to keep the intensity up and capitalize on the opportunities we make for ourselves. We will have to get into our zone and focus on the game at hand."
"It's been good (under O'Sullivan)," said Hercus. "We've had a pretty turbulent time over the last couple of years and it's always hard getting used to a new coach but, to Eddie's credit, he came in and didn't try and change the world when he got here.
"He's started off simple and we've evolved as a group over the past seven weeks - I think that was the right approach for this group of players.
"Having two wins in a row now (against Georgia and Canada) , it appears that we're peaking at the right time and hopefully we can finish with the triple at the weekend."
Canada coach Kieran Crowley is keen to treat the match as a one-off in a bid to stop that happening.
"It is a test match and we need to win it outright," he said. "If it gets down to the last twenty minutes and we need a specific number of points we look at it at that point, but until then it is like any other game."
The USA/Canada match kicks off at 1:30 p.m. (MDT) on Saturday and fans can still get tickets at http://cardticketing.com/showtickets.aspx?mid=233. Those unable to travel to the match can watch online by clicking on the USA v. Canada icon on the USA Rugby homepage or by going straight to Rugby Canada's U-Stream account at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-rugby.
Samoa - Papua New Guinea
After winning against the Cook Island last Saturday, Papua New Guinea's Pukpuks face Manu Samoa over two home-and-away ties in Rugby World Cup qualifying.
The first match will take place on Samoan soil at Apia Park this weekend, followed by another in Port Moresby and the aggregate winner will secure a place at Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand, in Pool D alongside South Africa, Wales and Fiji.
PNG coach Billy Rapilla admits that the tie will not be easy, but is looking forward to his players gaining masses of experience.
"We've had a couple of good games against the Cook Island but we've had a couple of changes due to injuries," he said.
"There is a replacement from PNG to replace one of our props, who broke a collar bone last week, but I believe we can play well.
"If our boys are disciplined, minus the errors we will be okay. Our strength is in the backline so if the forwards give them the opportunity, it'll give them a chance to expose themselves.
"We want to basically limit our mistakes and get a solid start first up. We want to, as much as possible, avoid their strength, especially in the set pieces. We want to really do well in contact areas, gain advantage and play to our strengths."
Squads
USA: 15. Chris Wyles (Saracens FC), 14. Takudzwa Ngwenya (Biarritz Olympic), 13. Paul Emerick (Overmach Parma), 12. Roland Suniula (Pearl City RFC), 11. Kevin Swiryn (Old Puget Sound Beach), 10. Mike Hercus (Sunshine Coast Stingrays), 9. Tim Usasz (Nottingham RFC), 1. Mate Moeakiola (Park City Haggis), 2. Chris Biller (California), 3. Shawn Pittman (Bayside RFC), 4. John Van der Giessen (Denver Barbarians), 5. Hayden Smith (Saracens FC), 6. Louis Stanfill (New York Athletic Club), 7. Todd Clever (Xerox Lions) Captain, 8. Nic Johnson (Denver Barbarians). Replacements: , 16. Joe Welch (Belmont Shore), 17. Mike MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie RFC), 18. Alec Parker (Gentlemen of Aspen), 19. J.J. Gagiano (Univ. of Cape Town), 20. Mike Petri (New York Athletic Club), 21. Ata Malifa (Belmont Shore RFC), 22. Salesi Sika (Castres Olympique)
Canada: 1. Kevin Tkachuk (Glasgow Warriors/Regina, SK), 2. Pat Riordan (University of Victoria/Burnaby Lake, BC), 3. Dan Pletch (Oakville Crusaders/Lucan, ON), 4. Mike Burak (Unattached/Vancouver, BC), 5. Tyler Hotson (UBC Old Boy Ravens/Vancouver, BC), 6. Jebb Sinclair (Castaway Wanderers/Frederiction, NB), 7. Nanyak Dala (Castaway Wanderers/Saskatoon, SK), 8. Adam Kleeberger (University of Victoria/White Rock, BC), 9. Ed Fairhurst (Cornish Pirates/Victoria, BC), 10. Ander Monro (Colorno, Italy), 11. Justin Mensah-Coker (Moseley/Vancouver, BC), 12. Ryan Smith (Calgary Irish/Caledon, ON) 13. DTH van der Merwe (Glasgow Warriors/Regina, SK), 14. Matt Evans (Hartpury College/Duncan, BC) 15. James Pritchard (Bedford RFC). Replacements: 16. Mike Pletch (Velox Valhallians/Lucan, ON), 17. Andrew Tiedemann (University of Victoria/St. Albert, AB), 18. Chauncey O'Toole (Castaway Wanderers/Belle Isle, NB),19. Stu Ault (Mosely RFC/Perth, ON), 20. Bryn Keys (Moseley RFC/Abbotsford, BC), 21. Phil Mack (James Bay AA/Victoria, BC), 22. Ciaran Hearn (Castaway Wanderers/Conception Bay, Nfld)
