Warriors’ World record-breaking hooker Joe Taufete’e will again start for USA in their final Americas Rugby Championship match against Canada in Seattle on Friday.
Taufete’e became the leading front row try-scorer in the history of international rugby when he scored a hat-trick in last Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Uruguay in Seattle.
Taufete’e’s first try took him past former Ireland hooker Keith Wood’s 15 international tries and he will go into the Canada match on 18 tries in 21 matches.
USA Head Coach Gary Gold, the former Warriors Director of Rugby, has made six changes to the starting XV and five to the bench.
“Obviously we are hugely disappointed with the result last weekend, especially knowing how important it is for us to execute in a Rugby World Cup year,” Gold said.
“But, by no means does one loss, or even two losses take away from our ability to come back and have another good string of performances in this last ARC game and as the year continues.
“We know what we need to do and, as a group, we are committed to one another, committed to our performance and together we’ll overcome this period of adversity.
“We have massive respect for Canada not only in the way they performed against Argentina XV last week but in how they themselves have evolved as a team.
“They’re a well-coached group with some very talented players whom we know will apply a lot of pressure on our guys this weekend, especially now that they’ve also qualified for Rugby World Cup. We’ll certainly be focused on putting our best foot forward on Friday as we know the Canadians will not make it easy for us.”