It’s not the result that would have been predicted pre-tournament. Scotland a Tier 1 rugby nation, a Six Nations member, were heavy favourites to win and get promoted back to the JWC U20 championships. It didn’t happen, they ended up finishing 3rd and USA 7th. Spain and Uruguay were the top two teams with Spain just edging Uruguay in the final.
Rugby Canada has confirmed what the Tongan rugby union had already stated, Tonga will play two World Cup warm up matches against Canada. The Tonga pre-World Cup schedule is Australia A, Fiji, Samoa, Japan, Canada, Canada.
It was 22-14 for USA at the half and they did all the second half scoring to win 39-14 and win on aggregate 82-35.
The USA opened the scoring 5 minutes in when their blindside flanker, Cameron McAlpine, beat three would be tacklers and scored. It was a try that shouldn’t have happened at this level and as the 82 point aggregate hints, defence was an issue for Canada. Noah Flesch saw a gap and tied the score up at 7 minutes, it was converted and Canada had a 7-5 lead. USA kicked a penalty at 30 minutes and were in the lead 8-7. Canada took back the lead with a score out wide by Craig Mitchell-Herman at 32 minutes, 14-8, and there was a glimmer of hope as the aggregate was now reduced to 16 with the conversion.
Canada lost to Spain 21-9 at the U20 level to finish their tour to Uruguay. They lost their first game to Uruguay 21-16. The roster for the two matches was the same except for the injury to starting lock Sol Jacques.
Canada lost to host Uruguay 21-16 in the first match of their tour, they’ll play Spain on May 13th before returning home. Canada were behind 7-6 at half time.
Rugby Canada have been fairly tight lipped about the U20 program this year with the team already in the air to Uruguay before announcing the team selections and matches. The first question many will have, are the games live streamed, and the Rugby Canada announcement doesn’t specifically tackle that question but does say, “Results from the matches in Uruguay will be posted to Rugby Canadas social media accounts”. That doesn’t sound promising but we’ll see if anything develops over the next week.
It was an interesting match that changed abruptly in the second half when subs were made. Canada Red were ahead 26-0 at the half and looked to be on their way to a rout but in the second half Canada Black fired back and were on the ascendancy when the final whistle blew. The final result according to our tally was 38-29, Canada Red winning the first half 26-0 but Canada Black winning the second half 29-12.
The JWRT, Junior World Rugby Trophy, tournament is back. The JWRT is the world U20 championship for Tier 2 nations. It was supposed to be held in Spain in 2020 but cancelled due to the pandemic, it was cancelled outright in 2021 and 2022 but is returning in 2023. The host nation will be Kenya according to Wiki, dates are unconfirmed but the last JWRT in Brazil (2019) was held in July.
Canada closed out their fall tour with a 43-37 loss to Namibia. Canada were ranked 21st, Namibia 23rd before the match, that may change on Monday when the new rankings are calculated. Hong Kong (24th) also defeated Kenya which may see them rise in the rankings.
from Canadian Press
Canada scored 24 second-half points en route to a 37-25 win over the Netherlands on Saturday in an international rugby test match.