The durably blast resistant Chinese rice variety SanHuangZhan 2 (SHZ-2) was crossed to a blast susceptible variety NSIC RC 146 (PJ7) from the Philippines to acquire durable resistance. Selected resistant lines were advanced until BC2F2. Sixty-two SSR markers were identified as background markers and the candidate defense genes oxalate oxidase (OXO) and oxalate oxidase-like protein (OXLP) were used to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small insertions/ deletions (InDels) between the parents through agarose-based EcoTILLING of 170 BC2F2 plants, four were identified to have at least 92 % recurrent parent genome and homozygous for SHZ-2 alleles for OXOs and OXLPs. These four plants showed partial resistance as expressed by lower disease leaf area (DLA) and smaller lesion type when inoculated with P06-6. However, resistant plants were also found in lines that were homozygous or heterozygous for PJ7 alleles of OXO and OXLP. The presence of major genes from SHZ-2 could have masked the effect of minor genes including OXOs and OXLPs. More candidate genes associated with resistance to rice blast must therefore be used as markers in combination with OXOs and OXLPs to enable efficient selection for quantitative resistance to blast.