Canada were caught unprepared by the pace of the Japanese game in the first 30 minutes and were down 38-0. It was a combination of a high tempo game by Japan and some sloppy tackling by Canada in the first 30 that let Japan score 5 unanswered tries.
Canada have named 35 players for their Pacific Nations Cup training squad. The first warm up match is against the Highlanders on Saturday, August 17th at the Capilano rugby club. Canada then face Japan and USA in the preliminary round of the PNC, before the playoff round starts in Japan.
Canada haven’t beaten a team ranked in the top 20 of the World Rugby Men’s Rankings since they defeated USA 34-21 in September 2021. Romania were ranked 20th (63.59) and Canada 22nd (60.90), this win bumps Canada up to 21st place in the rankings (61.87) which will overtake Chile (61.12). Even if Chile defeats Belgium this weekend they’ll still be knocked down to 22nd place (61.39). Romania will retain 20th spot although dropping to 62.62 in the ranking index.
Canada were pummeled by what was basically a Scotland A lineup with 10 new caps. Scotland ran in 11 tries to Canada’s 2 tries.
The JWRT kicks off on Tuesday with Canada missing. It’s the first time ever Canada have missed two Trophy tournaments in a row. Is it time for Canada to make a statement of intent that they’re getting serious about the men’s U20 program and host the JWRT for once.
Coach Kingsley Jones has announced 34 players for the summer tests for Scotland and Romania, it’s a mixture of youth and experience but it’s possible a number of the players won’t get selected for either match day 23 as Jones has his favourites and has frequently named players who don’t make the match day lineups.
Phil Mack named his Canada Selects squad to take on the Vancouver Highlanders in their double header on June 28th. The other match will see Highlanders take on Barbados. It’s a fairly strong side with a good selection of Pacific Pride players, some who are playing for the Altantic Privateers during the Coast to Coast cup.
The USA are playing Canada in August but they’ve released a 30 player roster for their July tests against Romania and Scotland. Canada are expected to release their summer roster next week sometime.
It was a similar scenario to Game #1, Canada dominated the scrums, the USA had the advantage everywhere else. Without Canada’s dominance in the set piece the score would have been a lot worse, Canada’s first two tries were penalty tries courtesy of the set piece. The 3rd Canada try was a kick to the corner from Matt Bennett to wing Spencer Cotie.
The Canada men’s XVs team are hosting 3 international matches this summer, two in Ottawa versus Scotland and Romania in July and one in Vancouver versus Japan in August. The tickets for the Ottawa matches go on sale April 25th.