TOKYO, 30 Sep - Canada coach Kingsley Jones has made six changes to his starting line-up for the Pool B match against New Zealand at Oita Stadium on Wednesday, Djustice Sears-Duru part of a new prop pairing charged with giving Canada forward parity with the All Blacks.
The dynamic loose-head, who came off the bench to win his 50th cap in the 48-7 defeat by Italy in Canada's RWC 2019 opener, makes his first World Cup start, having appeared as a replacement in all of Canada's games at RWC 2015, pictured, too.
The Canucks also have a new combination in midfield, Conor Trainor set to play at outside-centre eight years to the day after becoming the only player this century to score two tries against New Zealand in a World Cup match.
"That's pretty cool," said the 29-year-old, who played wing that day. "Back then I was just so young that I didn't really even know."
The other survivor from that 79-15 defeat is DTH van der Merwe. The star winger can join Brian Lima, Gareth Thomas, Brian O’Driscoll and Adam Ashley-Cooper as the only players to score at least one try in four World Cups. He will also become the players with the most RWC starts for Canada (14) and joint-most RWC appearances.
Canada
1. Djustice Sears-Duru
2. Eric Howard
3. Cole Keith
4. Evan Olmstead
5. Conor Keys
6. Lucas Rumball
7. Matt Heaton
8. Tyler Ardron (capt.)
9. Gordon McRorie
10. Peter Nelson
11. DTH Van Der Merwe
12. Ciaran Hearn
13. Conor Trainor
14. Jeff Hassler
15. Patrick Parfrey
16. Andrew Quattrin
17. Hubert Buydens
18. Jake Ilnicki
19. Michael Sheppard
20. Josh Larsen
21. Phil Mack
22. Taylor Paris
23. Andrew Coe
RNS lm