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The Canadian and Japanese teams are set for the opening round match of the 2015 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup, on Saturday at Avaya Stadium in San Francisco, California. The fixture is to be one half of a double-header in which the USA will play against Samoa thereafter.
Canadian Head Coach Kieran Crowley has named a near full-strength side featuring nine players based abroad this past season with the remainder being Canadian based. Missing is veteran star second-rower Jamie Cudmore who missed the end of the Top 14 season with Clermont but is now back training with the test squad in Canada.
Also missing is Canadian record scorer James Pritchard. Matt Evans has been named in place of the veteran fullback and will form a strong and aggressive back-three combination with the Welsh based pairing of Jeff Hassler and DTH van der Merwe on the wings. Their contest with Ayumu Goromaru, Yoshikazu Fujita and Kenki Fukuoka will be essential viewing.
The decision to play van der Merwe outwide enabled Ciaran Hearn to play in the mid-field. Arguably the star performer for the North Americans in the 2014 edition of the competition, Hearn will play opposite the highly regarded Kotaro Matsushima.
Both coaches, meanwhile have opted to play two fly-halves with Liam Underwood and Harumichi Tatekawa set to wear the number 10 shirts while inside Connor Braid and Yu Tamura will play as the inside centres. The decision suggests that both teams are hunting for try scoring opportunities.
Gordon McRorie is to play scrumhalf ahead of Phil Mack while Japan have decided to start Atsushi Hiwasa. McRorie is to be serviced by Tyler Ardron at the back of the scrum. Coming off an outstanding season for the Ospreys he could be a differential players between the sides. He is to face 34 year old Hayden Hopgood.
Richard Thorpe and Thyssen de Goede have been given opportunities in the back-row with neither having been established regulars in the squad. By way of comparison their opposites Michael Broadhurst and Justin Ives are highly likely to be heavily involved for Japan at the World Cup.
Jon Phelan and Brett Beukeboom are to form Canada’s starting second-row combination but could possibly be playing agaisnt each other for a place in the World Cup squad. The opponents Luke Thompson and Hitoshi Ono are veterans of Rugby World Cups 2007 and 2011.
Canada will be put to the test in the scrum and Crowley has opted to promote Doug Wooldridge to start at tightead prop. Both he and Ray Barkwill have been named ahead of players to have been utilized with greater regularity under the Crowley administration. Hubert Buydens completed the starting lineup at loosehead. He will play opposite the renowned Hiroshi Yamashita with Shota Horie and Hisateru Hirashima completing Japan’s front-row.
The match is slated to kick off at 5:00pm local time on Saturday. In last year’s PNC meeting in Burnaby, British Columbia, Japan completed a remarkable comeback to win 34-25. All Pacific Nations Cup matches will be streamed live at worldrugby.org
Canada
15 Matt Evans, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Connor Braid, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Liam Underwood, 9 Gordon McRorie, 8 Tyler Ardron, 7 Richard Thorpe, 6 Thyssen de Goede, 5 Jon Phelan, 4 Brett Beukeboom, 3 Doug Wooldridge, 2 Ray Barkwill, 1 Hubert Buydens
16 Aaron Carpenter, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Tyler Hotson, 20 Callum Morrison, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Nathan Hirayama, 23 Phil Mackenzie
Head Coach: Kieran Crowley
Japan
15 Ayumu Goromaru (Captain), 14 Yoshikazu Fujita, 13 Kotaro Matsushima, 12 Yu Tamura, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Harumichi Tatekawa, 9 Atsushi Hiwasa, 8 Hayden Hopgood, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Justin Ives, 5 Luke Thompson, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Hiroshi Yamashita, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Hisateru Hirashima
16 Keita Inagaki, 17 Takeshi Kizu, 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 19 Kazuhiko Usami, 20 Tsuyoshi Murata, 21 Keisuke Uchida, 22 Toshiaki Hirose, 23 Tim Bennetts
Head Coach: Eddie Jones
