CANADIAN recruit Mike Pyke's improvement since joining the Sydney Swans in December's rookie draft has encouraged coach Paul Roos to select him for Sunday's NAB Cup clash with Port Adelaide.

Roos confirmed on Wednesday that Pyke, a member of Canada's 2007 rugby World Cup squad, will share the ruck work with Darren Jolly in the Canberra game.

"He'll play on the weekend which is really good. He's at the stage now where he just needs to play," Roos said.

"He'll make some mistakes and he'll go to the wrong places and those sorts of things but in terms of his development, he rucked against Darren Jolly in our scratch match and did really well.

"He was competitive but now he's got to learn the game and you can only do that by playing.

"He'll play and probably play a lot of minutes on Sunday. I think he's pretty nervous and it's a big challenge for him but I'm sure he's looking forward to it."

Pyke, who has 17 Test caps for Canada and scored an 80m intercept try against the All Blacks in the build-up to the 2007 World Cup, seems physically well-suited to the position standing 200cm and weighing 104kg.

And the Swans have spots available on their senior list following the departure of Irish defender Tadhg Kennelly and the retirement of Nic Fosdike, while Leo Barry will miss the start of the home and away campaign due to injury.

With no confirmed back-up to Jolly after the retirement of Peter Everitt, a good performance by Pyke in his first match could lead to an unlikely elevation to the club's senior list by round one.

"I think that will pan out over the next four weeks," Roos said.

"Daniel Currie has had an interrupted pre-season, Jesse White will do a bit of ruck work through the next four weeks and you've got a couple of guys on the rookie list that you could possibly elevate with Leo being out for the first two or three weeks.

"It'll probably be the best performer over the next month that gets a chance to play in round one.

"There's certainly a spot there but at this stage we'll just leave it open."