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San Francisco will try to right their creaking ship against San Diego at Boxer Stadium in PRO Rugby Round 4 on Sunday. It’s been a difficult start for the home side with three losses coming out of the gate and facing one of the stronger teams in the competition makes the task that much more difficult.
Injuries have forced the hand of head coach Paul Keeler, who will be without Tom Coolican and Siaosi Mahoni on top of Alec Gletzer and Devereaux Ferris this week. Jay Finau comes in at hooker with Olympic lock Alex Bowman joining the team during the week. Life West forward Holo Mo’ungaloa is a late call-up to the bench with Isaac Helu also unavailable.
The backs are shuffled once again in an interesting configuration that sees Volney Rouse returned to the no10 jersey and Orene Ai’i moved to the unfamiliar spot of inside center. Nick Blevins returns to boost the midfield, and Martini Talapusi moves to fullback with Jake Anderson shifting to the wing.
San Diego look to bounce back from a frustrating defeat to Denver by making six changes in all. Mike Sosene-Feagai is out but Joe Taufete’e is fit enough to find a spot on the bench, with Tim Barford starting at hooker, where he finished the game at Torero Stadium last week.
Kakalia Pule swaps in for Epeli Kalemani at tighthead, and Tai Tuisamoa does the same at lock in place of Nikola Bursic. Junior All-American prop Mason Pedersen is also in the match day squad fresh from the u20 Trophy tournament in Zimbabwe.
Tom Bliss will get his first start at scrumhalf as he rotates with Charlie Purdon. The big news however is the grand entrance of two hugely experienced Eagles veterans. Andrew Suniula and Takudzwa Ngwenya are at inside center and right wing respectively and add brand names to a backline already brimming with confidence. Phil Mackenzie moves to the wing and Tim Stanfill will have to wait from the reserves bench.
Alarm bells should be ringing for San Francisco. San Diego only needs parity in terms of possession to turn this into a rout. If the locals are to have their way, they will have to do it ugly, using their bulkier men up front to strangle the pace out of the game. San Diego will have other ideas, and will be licking their lips with the injection of Suniula’s power and Ngwenya’s pace. It could well be another long day at the office for San Francisco.
As of the time of writing there is no live broadcast planned for this match.
SAN FRANCISCO
1 Niko Lolohea 2 Jacob Finau 3 Patrick Latu (capt.) 4 Alex Bowman 5 Rich Knight 6 Siupeli Sakalia 7 Sam Finau 8 David Tameilau 9 Michael Reid 10 Volney Rouse 11 Jake Anderson 12 Orene Ai’i 13 Nick Blevins 14 Pila Iongi 15 Martini Talapusi
16 Codi Jones 17 Maka Tameilau 18 Fancy Namulau’ulu 19 Holo Mo’ungaloa 20 Naibuka Tawake 21 Junior Helu 22 Charles Mateo 23 Jack O’Hara
SAN DIEGO
1 Hubert Buydens 2 Tim Barford 3 Kakalia Pule 4 David Dolinar 5 Tai Tuisamoa 6 Chris Turori 7 Cecil Garber 8 Sione Tu’ihalamaka 9 Tom Bliss 10 Kurt Morath 11 Phil Mackenzie (capt.) 12 Andrew Suniula 13 Ryan Matyas 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya 15 Mike Te’o
16 Joseph Taufete’e 17 Mason Pedersen 18 Epeli Kalemani 19 Nikola Bursic 20 Arnold Meredith 21 Charlie Purdon 22 Kalei Konrad 23 Tim Stanfill
Date: Sunday, May 8
Venue: Boxer Stadium, San Francisco
Kickoff: 15:00 local (16:00 MDT, 18:00 EDT)
Referee: Kurt Weaver
Assistants: Derek Summers & George O’Neil
Broadcasts: n/a
Tickets: TicketsWest
