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Canada will head into the second leg of the World Rugby u20 Trophy Qualifier against the USA with a convincing 34-point buffer as they look to confirm their spot in Uruguay this coming August. Head coach Jeff Williams has nominated an unchanged match day 23 while his Junior All-American counterpart JD Stephenson has unsurprisingly made a half-dozen changes.
Payton Telea starts at loosehead prop with Chance Wenglewski shifted across to the other side of the front row. Brian Nault, who started at No 8 on Tuesday, will now cover prop from the bench. Tommy Clark steps into to the second row and Jack Miller starts on the openside flank as Nafi Ma’afu switches to the back of the scrum.
Harley Wheeler is the only survivor in the three quart line but moves infield from the wing to partner Christian Dyer in the midfield. Ireland-based Peter Howard is named on the left wing and senior Eagle international Deion Mikesell joins up with the team on the right wing.
Kickoff in Edmonton is set for noon local time, 2pm Eastern. A live stream will be available on Rugby Canada’s Facebook page.
CANADA u20
1 Liam Murray, 2 Dewald Kotze, 3 Cole Keith, 4 Liam Doll, 5 Matt Beukeboom, 6 Lachlan Currie, 7 James O’Neill, 8 Jake Thiel, 9 Fraser Hurst, 10 Will Kelly, 11 Elias Ergas, 12 Josh Thiel, 13 George Barton (capt.), 14 Anton Ngongo, 15 Aidan McMullan
Replacements: 16 Steven Ng, 17 Connor Sampson, 18 Nick Frost, 19 Jamie McNaughton, 20 Jack McRogers, 21 William McDougall-Percillier, 22 Brennig Prevost, 23 Cole Davis
USA JUNIOR ALL-AMERICANS
1 Payton Telea, 2 Jack Iscaro, 3 Chance Wenglewski, 4 Tommy Clark, 5 Daemon Torres, 6 Malon Al-Jiboori (capt.), 7 Jack Miller, 8 Nafi Ma’afu, 9 Ruben de Haas, 10 Sam Walsh, 11 Peter Howard, 12 Christian Dyer, 13 Harley Wheeler, 14 Deion Mikesell, 15 Cristian Rodríguez
Replacements: 16 Martin Keuchkerian, 17 Brian Nault, 18 Jake Jorstad, 19 Bailey Wilson, 20 Justin Johnson, 21 Quinn Perry, 22 Aaron Matthews, 23 Lorenzo Thomas
