GLENDALE — In rugby circles, this was a garden-variety injury.
Showing early concussion-like symptoms and blood gushing from his nose, James Pritchard never thought about calling it a day.
He just needed a new jersey.
Pritchard, a winger and kicker for Team Canada, absorbed two inadvertent shots to the head within a 10-minute span in Saturday’s Churchill Cup opener against Uruguay. The first shot made him bleed, and the second caused him to see stars. Neither forced him out of a game Canada went on to win 48-6 at Infinity Park.
“I just went into a tackle the wrong way, and just got a bit concussed really, due to a head knock,” said Pritchard, an Australian with Canadian family roots. “They threw me off because I was bleeding from the first injury. I got a shot and they wanted to clean me up.”
Injured players have 15 minutes to recover on the sideline and be eligible to return. Pritchard made it back in 10, with an unnumbered jersey because bloody duds are forbidden. He later was replaced as Canada built on a 20-6 lead by scoring the final 28 points.
“You don’t want to come off. You get a chance to play in a test (national-team) match and you want to stay in it the whole game,” Pritchard said. “If you give it up easy, someone is willing to come in and take your spot . . . But they took me out as precaution, and we got a few good young fellas and it was good to give them some game time with a big lead.”
USA coach Eddie O’Sullivan watched the Canada-Uruguay match before his team beat Russia 39-22. Because of limited substitutions, he said a team’s top players must be earmarked for the hospital to miss the remainder of a big game.
“Rugby is a collision sport, like football and ice hockey. Before you do anything, you have to win the physical battle,” O’Sullivan said. “And blood injuries are quiet common. If a guy gets a cut, we stitch him up usually and send him back out. It’s like ice hockey, same principle. We have doctors and trainers, and if he’s not concussed, he’s going back.”
With hockey being their national pastime, Canadians are built rugby tough. But Pritchard is one of about three Canadian players who didn’t grow up with a stick and puck.
Team captain Pat Riordan played bantam hockey (14-under) with Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan in Surrey, British Columbia. And like a typical team-first hockey player, Riordan was more concerned about the team’s health than Pritchard’s.
“I saw him going off and I was a bit concerned because he’s the goal kicker, but we’ve got a couple other guys who are kicking 85 to 95 percent, so you just got to get on with it,” Riordan said. “There’s enough things going on in the field to worry you.”
Pritchard, 30, was playing in Canada’s first international match this year just eight weeks after undergoing reconstructive knuckle surgery. He previously broke his collarbone and has had numerous other fractures.
“You grow up with the toughness of getting banged around every week,” Pritchard said. “For the guys that don’t have the hockey or rugby background, it takes a bit of getting used to. . . . I don’t have that problem.”
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
