Counties name side for Canadians

Physical contest awaits English Counties side

England Counties captain Craig Hammond is backing his side to win a physical contest with Rugby Canada's Super League All Stars in Edmonton on Friday evening.

The English side - made up of players from outside the Zurich Premiership who have played in the Tetley's County Championship - opened their Canadian tour with an impressive 43-0 win against Super League side Crimson Tide in Vancouver.

Nottingham flanker Hammond is expecting a tougher test in Edmonton when the Counties take on an outfit containing players eager to impress their national selectors on the eve of the Churchill Cup finals.

But he expects the tourists to contain a big opposition pack before unleashing talented runners like Coventry scrum-half Shan Perry, Sale wing James Moore and Rotherham paceman Dave Strettle.

"Our aim is to win both games and the next challenge is playing a lot of the Canada A players in their All Star team," said Hammond.

"We're expecting them to be pretty physical up front, so we'll have to deal with that, then we'll be looking to break them at the tackle and get in behind them. We know we can wear them down and if we keep at them for 40 minutes we should get through."

Against Crimson Tide - one of the 14 teams in the Rugby Canada Super League - they did just that after taking half-an-hour to settle.

Young guns Perry and Strettle both touched down, a penalty try was awarded for a trip on Moore and the other scores came from Newbury centre Malcolm Roberts, Otley prop Kris Fullman and Plymouth Albion flanker Chris Lowrie.

Hammond said: "The boys gelled have gelled as a group and training's been very competitive because everybody knew that we had to pick 22 from 26 for the second game.

"It took us a while to get the hang of playing together and it was quite tough in the first half but we played some good patterns and in the second half we turned it on and scored some good tries.

"The good thing is that there are guys with plenty of experience but that there are young guys coming through who have done really well. The average age of the side is 25 but the younger players are learning from the older ones."

The England Counties management have had to make some tough selection calls to leave four of the 26 squad out and head coach Mark Nelson said: "There are four players who are absolutely gutted because they are not in the 22. But all the players have bought into what this tour is about. They have had to take holiday to be here, they are committed and they recognize it as a serious tour."

England Counties: James Moore (Cheshire); Matt Jess (Cornwall), Malcolm Roberts (Cornwall), Paul Mooney (Northumberland), David Strettle (Cheshire); Tom Barlow (Devon), Shaun Perry (North Midlands); Justin Wring (Yorkshire); Mark Luffman (Yorkshire); Kris Fullman (Yorkshire), Paul Arnold (Lancashire), Jason Oakes (Northumberland), Craig Hammond (Notts, Lincs & Derbs,capt), David Wilks (Lancashire), Ed Thorpe (Northumberland).
Replacements: Martin O'Keefe (Lancashire), Paul Price (Gloucestershire), Paul Williams (Yorkshire), Richard Senior (Lancashire), Chris Lowrie (Devon), Craig Jones (Gloucestershire), Warren Spragg (Lancashire).

Kick-off: 19.00 (01.00 GMT)