The Home Opener
The Toronto Arrows’ annual season opening road trip has come to an end! The Arrows will host the defending Champions Rugby New York Ironworkers in their home opener at York Lions Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Arrows had a rough 6 game road trip to open the season. The Arrows were 1-5-0 while suffering a copious amount of injuries. However, the Arrows are significantly better at home. No one has began to run away with the Eastern Conference yet. However, if the Arrows want to make a run at the post-season, it will need to start with this home stand and a win against New York. The Arrows lost to the Ironworkers 39-3 back in week 2.
Starting XV
Toronto
The Arrows continue to battle their on going injury situation. This week saw the announcement that Nic Benn will be out for the remainder of the season with Avery Oitomen, Mitch Eadie, and Tyler Rowland being added to the injury list. The Arrows have brought in a handful of reinforcements. Shay Kerry is a big English lock that has played his past two seasons with Rouen Normandie in France’s Pro D2. Kerry was a teammate of flyhalf Shane O’Leary during that time. The Arrows have also inked Rugby Canada flyhalf/fullback Peter Nelson for the remainder of the season. Nelson will be a welcome addition as Brenden Black is off to join the Rugby Canada U23 team at Tropical Sevens. Former Arrow prop Marc-Antoine Ouellet has also returned to the squad. All 3 reinforcements are immediately placed into the matchday squad.
Some good news on the injury front is that Adrian Wadden, Mitch Richardson, Shane O’Leary, and Will Grant return to the lineup. Richardson will be on the wing and O’Leary starts at flyhalf which moves Sam Malcolm to fullback. The rest of the back line seems as strong as it has been all year as Ross Braude, Noel Reid, Fabian Goodall, and D’Shawn Bowen all start in the home opener.
Wadden is back in the number 5 jersey, but the other injuries lead to a bit of a shift in the pack. Lolani Faleiva shifts over to tighthead with Ramon Ayarza moving to loosehead and Gene Syminton starting at hooker. Mike Sheppard joins Wadden in the engine room. Owain Ruttan returns to the back row with James O’Neill and Lucas Rumball.
The bench sees a more traditional 5-3 split this week with just 3 front row players. It may be interesting to keep an eye on Jack McRogers, who has been listed in the lineup for the past two games, but has not played a minute. The 3 reinforcements, Nik Hildebrand, Hank Stevenson, Will Grant, and Dawson Fatoric round out the bench.
New York
The New York Ironworkers are coming off a big win over Rugby ATL last week. Both their Canadians, Quinn Ngawati and Andrew Coe, had tries in the match. Ngawati is bringing a two-game try scoring streak with him back to the city he once called home during his rugby league days with the Toronto Wolfpack. An injury to Ed Fidow means that Ngawati will start this week and will form a pair of Canadian wingers with Coe on the opposite side. Many of the Ironworkers big name players such as Chance Wenglewski, Dylan Fawsitt, captain Nate Brakeley, Maori All Black Kara Pryor, Jack Heighton, and Fa’asiu Fuatai are all in the lineup for this match.
Player to Watch
Plenty to chose from in this match, but the nod is going to Shane O’Leary. Following his brief appearance in the season opening match with Rugby ATL (where he set up the Arrows lone try of the match), I was left wondering if the Arrows should try O’Leary at flyhalf with Malcolm at fullback? With both O’Leary and Malcolm in the lineup the Arrows will have two legit playmaking options which could open up the chance for more dynamic attacking play. O’Leary has been out with an injury since the season opener, so this will be our first chance to see this set up in action. Additionally, with Peter Nelson on the bench, slot in for either one of these players with minimal adjustments to the attack plan. Hopefully, this can be the catalyst to jump start the Arrows attack.
Storylines
Home Field Advantage?
The Toronto Arrows finally get their home-opener in week 8. An Arrows home game is always a special occasion, as the club has played significantly more road games in their history. From James Deeley (@MLRStats), the Arrows are 11-5 (.733) at home compared to 18-26 (.409) on the road. One thing is clear, the Arrows clearly relish home field advantage. Back in 2019, the Arrows famously ran off 7 consecutive wins at home in order to make the playoffs. Despite the 1-5-0 record, the Arrows are far from out it this season. The 2nd place team in the East, NOLA Gold, are below 500 with a 3-4-0 record. There is time to turn things around, but the Arrows need to use the home field advantage they have established to make it happen.
The other side of the coin here is the Arrows have never won a home opener. Granted in two of their first four years in the league, they never got the chance to have a home opener. In 2019, they lost 35-31 to NOLA and in 2022 they fell 20-14 to Rugby ATL. However, no one has ever swept the season series between New York and Toronto. The Ironworkers won the first encounter, which historically seems to lead to Toronto winning today. Ultimatley, between the home opener stat and the season series stat, something has to give today.
White and Red Wings
It is always fun when Canadians go head to head with each other in MLR games. This match will be no exception as two pairs of Canadian wingers on either side. The Arrows have Mitch Richardson and D’Shawn Bowen and New York countering with Quinn Ngawati and Andrew Coe. Bowen is one of the Arrows recent reinforcemnt signings as he joined from the Canadian sevens team. Bowen looked great coming off the bench against Dallas lat week. Richardson will be returning from injury this week was has been a key cog in a few of the Arrows tries this year. Ngawati and Coe have been lighting up the scoreboard in recent weeks and it should make for a very fun matchup.
The Arrows will welcome the New York Iron Workers to York Lions Stadium for the home opener on Saturday April 8, 2023 at 4pm! You can get tickets at torontoarrows.com! If you can’t make it to the game, cancel those plans, because an Arrows game will be more fun! However, you can still watch the game on TSN or the Rugby Network. You can follow along over @lerougerugby or @bressettethejet.