Following a noticeable rise in the standard of the domestic league, Finland will now be fielding an A side as well as the national first team, with the aim of providing an opportunity for more players to experience not only playing for their country but also gaining experience against strong opponents from abroad.
This Saturday the A side will travel from Turku to Mariehaminna to play Stockholm Exiles 2nd XV. Exiles are a strong club with a long history: their first team won the Swedish Championship last season and recently provided nine players to the Swedish national team (seven of whom started the match). No doubt this will be a challenging encounter for Finland A, but no team improves by picking easy opponents and the experienced gained will be invaluable as the players look to make claims for places in the first team squad. Moreover each player will be hoping to make enough of an impression to earn a place in the A side's following match, away against Estonia in May.
Finland A squad vs Stockholm Exiles:
Forwards-
Jesse Metsänen (Tampere RC)
Sauli Tyvi (Vaasa Wolves)
Mikko Aalto (Helsinki RC)
Tatu Rantakokko (Eagles RFC Turku)
Aleksi Laitinen (Vaasa Wolves)
Antti Pappila (Helsinki Warriors)
Ville Siiskonen (Helsinki RC)
Jussi Tamminen (Eagles RFC Turku)
Kalle Salminen (Eagles RFC Turku)
Ari Tikkanen (Kuopio RC)
Aarne Ritala (Vaasa Wolves)
Joonas Manni (Eagles RFC Turku)
Isaac Visser (Eagles RFC Turku) CAPTAIN
Backs-
Jan Airola (Eagles RFC Turku)
Timo Väljä (Vaasa Wolves)
Teemu Elomaa (Jyvaskyla RC)
Markku Kiviniemi (Eagles RFC Turku)
Christiaan Freeman (Tampere RC)
Elias Korhonen (Eagles RFC Turku)
Joonas Neväkivi (Helsinki RC)
Henrico Harnoster (Linna RC)
Rasmus Kevin (Eagles RFC Turku)
Jared Gregory (Helsinki RC)
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