Canada captain Tyler Ardron and lock Evan Olmstead will have some familiar faces to run into when their team face the All Blacks in their World Cup Pool B match in Oita on Saturday.
No,.8 Ardron has been a stand-out player for the Chiefs in Super Rugby for the last two seasons, while Olmstead was in the Auckland side that won New Zealand's provincial championship last year.
- Atu Moli's remarkable road to recovery
- Rieko Ioane returns for All Blacks against Canada
- Mo'unga, Barrett combo needs more time - Hansen
- 'Sub-conscious bias' plagues Polynesian players at World Cup
Olmstead is one of six changes made by coach Kingsley Jones to the starting side who were beaten 48-7 by Italy in their opener last week in Fukuoka.
Loosehead prop Djustice Sears-Duru will earn his first World Cup start against the two-time defending World Cup champions.
Sears-Duru played in all of Canada's matches at the 2015 World Cup off the bench and was a replacement against Italy last week, but has come in for Hubert Buydens in the No.1 jersey for the All Blacks clash.
Jones was forced to also shake up his midfield with Nick Blevins (broken jaw) and Ben LeSage (hand) both ruled out of the tournament over the weekend.
Conor Trainor, who scored two tries against the All Blacks in Canada's 79-15 defeat at the 2011 World Cup, and Ciaran Hearn have been named in their place.
Matt Heaton, who bombed a certain try-scoring opportunity against Italy, will start at openside flanker, while Cole Keith has replaced Matt Tierney at tighthead prop.
Canada created several more chances than the one Heaton wasted against Italy but were unable to capitalise and they have targeted the All Blacks match as one in which they hope to improve, while still being put under pressure.
They are, however, under no illusions as to what awaits them.
"Playing against the best team in the world is a great opportunity for us to really challenge ourselves and a big result for us would be if we can improve on our performance from Italy," scrumhalf Gordon McRorie said on Sunday.
"You've just got to acknowledge who you're playing against and that's the main thing and then after that, concentrate on yourself, on your own performance, on the team performance."
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, 9-Fordom McRorie, 10-Peter Nelson, 11-DTH Van Der Merwe, 12-Ciaran Hearn, 13-Comor Trainor, 14-Jeff Hassler, 15-Patrick Parfey
Reserves: 16-Andrew Quattrin, 17-Hubert Buydens, 18-Jake Ilnicki, 19-Michael Sheppard, 20-Josh Larsen, 21-Phil Mack, 22-Taylor Paris, 23-Andrew Coe
Reuters
Join us from 11:15pm Wednesday for live updates of the All Blacks v Canada.
Essential Guide to 2019 Rugby World Cup
Everything you need to know about rugby and the World Cup...
The ninth Rugby World Cup kicks off on September 20 in Japan - the first time it has been hosted in Asia.
