{"id":95623,"date":"2025-08-25T21:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95623\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T21:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T21:56:10","slug":"canada-declares-traveling-squad-for-japan-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95623\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada declares traveling squad for Japan test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada have declared a 28-man traveling squad for their upcoming Pacific Nations Cup test against Japan in Sendai this coming Saturday, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugby-japan.jp\/news\/53450\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">confirmed by Japan Rugby<\/a>. Having defeated the USA in convincing fashion in Calgary, the team is now on the verge of qualification for the World Cup with only a single bonus point required against the Brave Blossoms to formally book their spot at Australia 2027.<\/p>\n<p>As expected France-based forwards Evan Olmstead and Tyler Ardron will not make the trip, with flyhalf Cooper Coats also unavailable. Midfielder Talon McMullin, who did not play against the Eagles, is not among the traveling group.<\/p>\n<p>Called into the squad are uncapped hooker Austin Creighton, second row Callum Botchar, scrumhalf Brock Gallagher, and flyhalf or fullback Shane O\u2019Leary. Botchar and Gallagher both played against Belgium in Edmonton during the July test window.<\/p>\n<p>Should Canada fail to secure a victory or bonus point in Sendai, the USA would need a four-try bonus point victory over Japan and a superior points differential to take Canada\u2019s place in the PNC Semi Final. The Maple Leafs were on the short side of a 55-28 result against Japan in Vancouver last year, but did manage to score four tries in the defeat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LOOSEHEAD PROP<br \/>Cali Martinez (Old Glory DC) 9 caps<br \/>Emerson Prior (Utah Warriors) 2 caps<\/p>\n<p>HOOKER<br \/>Austin Creighton (Pacific Pride) uncapped<br \/>Dewald Kotze (Seattle Seawolves) 7 caps<br \/>Jesse Mackail (Seattle Seawolves) 4 caps<\/p>\n<p>TIGHTHEAD PROP<br \/>Cole Keith (New England Free Jacks) 38 caps<br \/>Kyle Steeves (New England Free Jacks) 4 caps<br \/>Conor Young (RFC Los Angeles) 12 caps<\/p>\n<p>SECOND ROW<br \/>Callum Botchar (NOLA Gold) 5 caps<br \/>Izzak Kelly (Capilano) 8 caps<br \/>Piers von Dadelszen (New England Free Jacks) 7 caps<\/p>\n<p>BACK ROW<br \/>Mason Flesch (Chicago Hounds) 14 caps<br \/>Matt Heaton (RFC Los Angeles) 35 caps<br \/>Matthew Oworu (Chicago Hounds) 11 caps<br \/>Sion Parry (Ebbw Vale, UK) 10 caps<br \/>Lucas Rumball (capt., Chicago Hounds) 61 caps<\/p>\n<p>SCRUMHALF<br \/>Brock Gallagher (Seattle Seawolves) 7 caps<br \/>Jason Higgins (Chicago Hounds) 21 caps<br \/>Stephen Webb (UBC Thunderbirds) 1 cap<\/p>\n<p>FLYHALF\/FULLBACK<br \/>Brenden Black (Canada Sevens) 1 cap<br \/>Peter Nelson (Dungannon, UK) 29 caps<br \/>Shane O\u2019Leary (Miami Sharks) 14 caps<\/p>\n<p>MIDFIELD<br \/>Noah Flesch (Chicago Hounds) 5 caps<br \/>Spencer Jones (Utah Warriors) 10 caps<br \/>Ben LeSage (New England Free Jacks) 38 caps<\/p>\n<p>WING<br \/>Nic Benn (Utah Warriors) 7 caps<br \/>Josiah Morra (New England Free Jacks) 8 caps<br \/>Isaac Olson (New England Free Jacks) 7 caps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada have declared a 28-man traveling squad for their upcoming Pacific Nations Cup test against Japan in Sendai&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-95623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}