Tonga Topples Canucks

July 25, 2015 Posted in Canada Rugby / Fifteens / NSMT

Featured is one shining moment in last night’s game for the hosts. Canada started well and finished okay however from about 35 minutes in, when Underwood was inexplicably yellow carded (my opinion according to laws), offered little. It was a match which was not controlled well by the M-I-M (again an opinion), a man who has some pool games in the upcoming RWC, a blatant punch was missed, not to mention countless offside for the visitors. For my money, “Moose” Buydens was the Canadian M-o-M. Set scrummaging was again, an issue, Canada simply not matching beef with Tonga, nor aggression. In today’s game without good ball from re-starts, little can be done to break organized defences. DTH and Hassler again tried whenever they could but saw little ball for any real threat. After the opening try and another very real chance, only to come away with nix, Canada had ten points in ten minutes and managed to hang on 15 -10 at the halfway.

The second stanza was pretty much all Tonga for 18 points and the W. They started with verve, having the extra man and continued, full of running and anything else they could get away with, McRorie was annihilated in a no arms tackle after he chipped ahead and on it went, ten minutes of Tongan trouble! As Captain Ardron said; “….we can’t hide it (scrummaging deficiencies)” and it does not get any easier with Samoa next up. Carpenter went well but ran out of steam, being the hole that opened for the key “go-ahead” Tongan tally. The two locks, again did not compare with their opposites at this level, Moonlight worked hard but there were some mistakes, (ed. – this man has played a massive amount and given yeoman’s service, one wonders if he doesn’t need some rest going into RWC). Underwood showed some nice flashes this week, looking more comfortable however, Hearn left early and the centres showed little thrust, being snuffed out quickly with any possession. Kudos to them with a pretty good effort on defence against two big men and the back three had limited opportunities.

In other PNC games, Samoa and Fiji tied and U.S.A. defeated Japan, 23 – 18.