Did the Dough on Day Two!

Backed the boys but the U.S. was simply too good, winning 29 – 10 on a day that simply turned out to be ALL U.S., posting 43 points on England and 45 on the Aussies in the final. Well done! This final tourney saw the U.S. as winners, Fiji, win the overall series and Fiji, RSA, N.Z. and England, Rio bound. Game #2 saw Canada drop to N.Z., 33 – 15. The final outcome, winning a significant ten points to leap-frog Samoa and Wales and end in ninth place – a top-ten, surely achieving one goal, is very creditable.

“Stats-cam” is again evidence that there can be very few accurate predictions, as anything can happen and indeed, does……examples – Australia up 28 – 0 at the half over Fiji; U.S. d. England, 43 – 12 in a display of blistering speed and skill, Japan rebounds from the brink to avoid “relegation”. So, it’s where to from here?

One team from North America will be automatically included as winners of a world geographical regional competition. There would still be some hope, should this not be Canada, with sixteen teams going into a final, final Qualifier. Pity Underwood suffered another concussion shot, as Canada needs all of their top guns healthy. This window of time might just see the return of a Phil Mack and certainly, Dala, Hearn and Scholtz would be available, whether or not overseas pros such as Douglas, Hassler, and DTH would come into the mix, remains to be seen. This current series has enabled the coach to really blood some new guys, such as Zaruba, Cejvanovic, and Kay and to seeing that Braid and Evans can fit in and probably excel, with some work on the patterns must be very heartening, finishing in the top eight on three consecutive occasions to boot. In between all this we have fifteens internationals and RWC, so it is a full plate for our top guys. Final word – well done, Canada!