Carpenter runs out with Harlequins

Canada hooker Aaron Carpenter offered Brantford Harlequins fans a rare treat this past weekend as he took to the pitch for his home club in their 41-22 victory over Oakville Crusaders. The former national team captain hadn’t appeared in Ontario’s Marshall Premiership since first moving to the UK as a professional with Coventry in 2008.

Carpenter joined Plymouth Albion in 2010 and after spending three seasons with the RFU Championship side signed for his current club, Cornish Pirates, in 2013. Originally a no8, he began his permanent shift to hooker with Pirates after the emergence of new captain Tyler Ardron in the Canadian national team. His contract with Pirates runs until June of 2016.

A member of both the 2007 and 2011 World Cup squads, the veteran won the most recent of his 60 international caps against Romania in November, a match that would be his last of the 2014/15 campaign, as he sat out the remainder of the season with injury. His appearance for Brantford was his first live action of the year, and he now looks set to turn out for the Ontario Blues in the upcoming Canadian Rugby Championship in order to build match fitness ahead of July’s Pacific Nations Cup and September’s Rugby World Cup.