WAITANGI, 12 Sept. - Comments from Canada coach Kieran Crowley (NZL) and Canada captain and hooker Pat Riordan (CAN) at a press conference at their team hotel ahead of Wednesday's match with Tonga.

Kieran Crowley (NZL) - Canada coach

On Tonga's opening match against New Zealand:

“It always amazes me in the media how they say that top teams don’t fire when they play those teams. You had the classic with the Romania and Scotland game.

"From experience, the so-called tier-two countries are improving and you can only play as well as you are allowed to play.

“Defensively they were very good, they had a couple of glitches, which the All Blacks were able to get through, but their direct pick-and-go game was good, and the scrum is one of the strongest."

On how the team will face up to Tonga's Sipi Tau:

"You've got to respect people's cultures, that's a pretty passionate thing for them. We will give it the respect it deserves."

On forward Jamie Cudmore (CAN) rejoining the team almost four years since his previous Canadian cap:

"It's his first time he's been back since I've been here, which is three and a half years. It's not that he hasn't wanted to be in, he's been missing through either injury or other circumstances so it's great to see him back.

"He brings great experience, there is only him and DTH van der Merwe who play in the top league in the world, the top 14 in the world, then we have three players who have Division 1 in England and the rest of the guys are locals.

"He brings experience at that level and he brings the attitude of a hardened professional player.

"He's adapted to the team very well, he's just one of the guys."

On the team to face Tonga:

"We've had now a couple of games against the USA and then the Australian part and guys have been given opportunities and the healthy thing is that there is some competition within the group.

"We just felt that looking at the Tonga game and leading in that this was the group for this particular game."

Pat Riordan (CAN)

On the youngest player in the RWC, Taylor Paris (CAN):

"Taylor takes very little managing, despite his age he's one of the more mature guys on the tour, I don't know if that says more about him or the other guys on the tour.

"He's pretty popular with the girls at training, he's one of the fan favourites, he's a very mature kid. He's got a ton of potential on the field. He's a treat to have on the team."

On playing their first RWC game:

"I think one of the things about being in tier two is that you don't get to play on the big stage too often.

"One thing coming from watching the games on the weekend, that might be an advantage of playing at the second week, is you see the France and Japan game or Scotland, Romania, they were games that were decided in the last 10 minutes.

"That was pretty exciting for us, there's nothing to say you can't beat a team that's five or six or 10 places above you. So in that sense we are chomping at the bit to show what we can do."

On whether they can win:

"Of course we think we’ve got a chance to win.

"You wouldn’t get on the plane to come here if you didn’t think you could, but I’m pretty sure there is three guys somewhere else in New Zealand saying the exact same thing about Wednesday’s game."