By BRIAN LOWE
IT’S CRUNCH time in the Americas Championship series with the 2017 winner to be decided this weekend.
Arch rivals the United States and Canada are to face off in Saturday’s series decider in Toronto and the boys from south of the 49th parallel will go in as favourites.
The Americans only need a tie to clinch this year’s series after comprehensively beating Jamaica in game one, before the Reggae Warriors bounced back to defeat the Canadians in game two.
For the Wolverines to have any chance of factoring into calculations for a series title they not only have to top their rivals, something they haven’t been able to manage since 2015, but they also need to win big.
Despite the big ask, however, Canadian head coach Ben Fleming isn’t too perturbed by the prospect.
“With the [Toronto] Wolfpack playing as the curtain-raiser for this international means there will be plenty of rowdy fans,” he said.
“The players always tend to lift when they’re playing in front of 7,000+ fans, so the raucous atmosphere might provide the extra motivation we need to get our first win.”
Canada is on a six-game losing streak following the defeat by Jamaica last month in the Caribbean, which was backed up by a loss to a Fijian Residents side last weekend in Vancouver.
On the other hand, the Hawks know they can’t afford to be complacent and captain Nick Newlin says they’re not reading too much into Canada’s two latest losses.
“We always know that Canada saves its best for us and will have a strong, stacked side ready to try and win back the Colonial Cup,” he said.
“We squeaked by with two wins last year and they handed it to us in 2015 so anything can happen, especially when we play them at home in Lamport Stadium. On top of that, they will have a large Wolfpack crowd staying after that game to try and make sure we don’t get out of there with a big win.”
The US has made some tweaks to its roster since the triumph against Jamaica in July, but Newlin says the team is confident of getting the job done.
“We believe we have one of the strongest sides in years heading into this game,” he added.
“Quite a few of the guys have at least four to five games of international experience and we feel good coming off a big victory against Jamaica in the rain back in July.
“We haven’t shaken up the roster too much from that game, so the cohesion will be there and we know we need to have a big game as a team and as individuals as we all make our final push towards getting our names on the RLWC 2017 USA side.”
