“I had that history watching the team, chasing them around”.
Advertisement
Olmstead has played the last two Canadian Rugby Championship seasons with the Prairie Wolf Pack, commuting between Canada and Australia depending on the rugby season.
France have all the tools to win the tournament, but often seem to be their worst enemy.
Many teams have entered this World Cup under pressure to deliver some degree of success. All in all, it’s worked out pretty well for the North Shore boy. Instead of committing three of four players to guard against outside runners receiving a pop pass, opposition teams can afford to put just one or two players in to make a tackle, safe in the knowledge that the player in possession will go to ground and not pass it off. I’m in better shape than I’ve been in in my life….
Paul O’Connell will lead the side on his 106th appearance for Ireland in his fourth World Cup, equalling John Hayes’s record for a forward.
Ireland’s discipline has been good to the point of angelic under Joe Schmidt, but there is an expectation that Canada, and Romania, will look to unsettle Ireland by getting under their skin and trying underhand tactics to disrupt the Six Nations champions.
“It’s really exciting – we’ve got our World Cup kit, it’s all branded with the logo”, Evan says.
Plenty of responsibility will rest on his shoulders, and it will be up to him to spark the trademark French flair that has not been so prominent in recent years.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure how many caps he has for Clermont but he has a high number of first-class games under his belt, he’s a very experienced player”. I’m making my run at the right time though….
“They’ve got seven professional clubs in Bucharest”.
Meanwhile, Canada named its side in Swansea, and will not have feature captain and No. 8 Tyler Ardron, who has been nursing a knee ligaments injury since the Pacific Nations Cup game against Samoa on July 29.
Crowley’s biggest fear is Canada will lose funding from World Rugby, the sport’s governing body, if it continues to fall in the rankings.
“We have just been monitoring his situation”, said Crowley.
“Personally it’s probably one of the times I’ve been most nervous about World Cup selection”, winger DTV van der Merwe said of the depth.
“It’s a bit different for us we haven’t travelled yet, there’s a lot of teams there already”.
Advertisement
“They have a hugely strong scrum and their lineout is one of the best percentage lineouts in world rugby”.
