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An injury to captain Aaron Carpenter will see uncapped loose forward Travis Larsen join up with the Canadian team ahead of their match against Romania this coming weekend. Carpenter broke the radius bone in his left forearm early in the second half at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, and will now be sidelined until well into the new year. It’s a bitter blow for the veteran no8, who is set to celebrate his 34th birthday in January with a cast on his arm. In winning his 75th test cap against Ireland he is one short of Al Charron’s all-time Canadian record.
Larsen, 25, was born in Nanaimo, British Colombia, but moved to New Zealand – his father’s home country – at a young age. He represented New Zealand Universities before spending two years as a professional in Italy with Lyons Piacenza and Petrarca Padova. After being called into the Canada ‘A’ squad for their UK tour in August, the 1.91m (6’3″) no8 moved to Vancouver to join up with the Meraloma Rugby Club in the CDI Premier League. His younger brother Josh played for Northland in the Mitre 10 Cup this season and has previously represented Canada at u20 level.
In the absence of Carpenter, midfielder Ciaran Hearn is expected to assume the captaincy against Romania. Hearn assumed the leadership role in Dublin when Carpenter left the field and is now the most experienced player in the squad with 51 caps.
Disappointed I couldn’t finish the match last night. I broke my radius tackling one of those Irishmen Surgery done on the road to recovery pic.twitter.com/25vA4YI1yA
— Aaron Carpenter (@Carpatron) November 13, 2016
