Rugby United New York and the Toronto Arrows were scheduled to play a preseason match in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, January 12. Kickoff was scheduled for 4 pm ET at the Buffalo Bills Fieldhouse, an enclosed practice facility in Orchard Park.
Unfortunately, the Rugby United New York team bus was involved in a morning traffic accident, which precluded the team from traveling. Nobody was hurt, but the Arrows and Canadian fans traveled for the match.
Photos: Toronto Arrows – Brock Smith
A decision was made to play an exhibition match with the Arrows splitting their team into two squads, the #TeamToronto in white and #TeamOntario in the Arrows retro blue uniforms with a gold strip. Three 20-minute periods were played. Team Ontario prevailed 40-24.
During the first period, Team Ontario took at 7-5 lead with Paul Ciulini scoring a try and Shawn Windsor converting. Guiseppe du Toit scored for Team Toronto.
In the middle period, Ontario extended their lead to 28-12 over Toronto with Morgan Mitchell, Mitch Richardson, and John Sheridan touching down and with Jack Evans slotting three conversions. Toronto added a try by Tom Van Horne and a conversion by Sam Malcolm.
The scrimmage concluded after the third period with Ontario claiming a 28-12 victory.
The Toronto Arrows will begin their regular Major League season in New Orleans against NOLA Gold on Saturday, January 26 at 2 pm CT. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+. That will be the first of eight consecutive away matches for the Arrows. The good news is that their final eight matches will be at home when the weather changes.
The Toronto Arrows will need to wait until Friday, March 15th before they face Rugby United New York at MCU Stadium in Brooklyn, New York.
Rugby United New York will need to regroup at practice and prepare for their MLR regular-season opener in San Diego on January 27 against the Legion. That match will be broadcast on ESPN+, SNY, and YurView.
Toronto Arrows v Rugby United New York match preview article.
Squads: RUNY & Toronto Arrows
Get to know the players. Links to player profile articles are available for the Toronto Arrows and for the 23 players that have been announced by Rugby United New York. Other RUNY players listed have played in previous matches. More RUNY signings will be announced soon with releases to follow. Not all players below will be traveling.
Rugby United New York: 1 Anthony Parry 2 Dylan Fawsitt 3 Paddy Ryan 4 Nate Brakeley 5 Myles McQuone 6 Alex MacDonald 7 Matt Hughston 8 Ross Deacon 9 Marcus Walsh 10 Cathal Marsh 11 Connor Wallace-Sims 12 Will Leonard13 Chris Mattina 14 Derek Lipscomb 15 Luke Hume 16 Mike Brown 17 James Rochford 18 Callum Mackintosh 19 Trevor Cassidy 20 Matt Wirken 21 Kyle Sumsion 22 James Denise 23 Gavan D’Amore Morrison 24Mike Petri 25 Seimou Smith 26 Mike St. Claire
Not Traveling – Kirk Hamilton, Chris Sullivan, John Quill, Harry Bennett, Seamus Kelly, Ben Foden
Toronto Arrows: Match 1-27 TBA
Toronto Arrows: 1 Rob Brouwer 2 Andrew Quattrin 3 Morgan Mitchell 4 Mike Sheppard 5 Paul Ciulini 6 Peter Milazzo 7 Marcello Wainwright 8 Kolby Francis 9 Jamie Mackenzie 10 Sam Malcolm 11 Kainoa Lloyd 12 Guiseppe du Toit 13 Spencer Jones 14 Dan Moor 15 Theo Sauder 16 Steven Ng 17 Mike Smith 18 Cole Keith 19 Tom Van Horne 20 Josh Van Horne 21 Riley DiNardo 22 Johnny Sheridan 23 Jamie Leveridge 24 Mitch Richarson 25 Shawn Windsor 26 Jack Evans
Scratch – Andrew Ferguson
Not-Traveling – Tom Dolezel, John Moonlight, Lucas Rumball, Jack Nay, Leandro Leivas, Gastón Mieres, Aaron McLelland
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