The Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby team found out Sunday how wide a chasm it is between itself and the world top-15 in dropping a 57-34 track meet to Spain at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa. No. 15 Spain ripped through No. 21 sa国际传媒’s porous defence to build a 40-13 half-time lead before the somnolent hosts woke up late in the game to make the scoreline somewhat more respectable.
“We’ve got to learn to start quicker,” said Canadian captain Lucas Rumball, in a statement.
“It’s something we’ve done as well in the past is wait until the game is out of hand … but we really dig ourselves a hole to find that spark. If we want to be a top team, and we want to be in the top-20 of the world, then we really need to start from the go and we can’t wait to jump into that next gear.”
sa国际传媒 won the second half 21-17 but head coach Kingsley Jones of Sooke said it was “clutching at straws” at that point and “the half time result really is the one that we’re very disappointed with.”
sa国际传媒, playing the long game, fielded a young roster that it hopes will evolve over the next five years. sa国际传媒 failed to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, marking the first time it will not appear in the planetary showcase. The goal now is the 2027 World Cup and to climb out of the third tier and back into the second-tier of rugby-playing nations. It fell well short of that against Spain in a bell-weather Test against a surprising nation which has moved up from the third tier to the second tier. It was Spain’s first win over sa国际传媒 in three historical meetings and an indication of the two teams’ differing trajectories.
Spain qualified for the 2023 World Cup but was later disqualified for using an ineligible player. Instead of being downcast, however, the Spaniards were lethally sharp on offence with the sorts of crisply-refined off-load passes for tries that sa国际传媒 is not yet capable of making. Yet Spain also pushed across for brute-strength tries with their much heavier forward pack. sa国际传媒’s shredded defence had no answers.
Canadian starters included University of Victoria Vikes graduate Jake Ilnicki of the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay, former UVic player Conor Keys, Matthew Oworu from the Langford-based Pacific Pride U-23 development team and two Major League Rugby players from Victoria in SMUS-graduate Quinn Ngawati of United New York and Oak Bay-graduate Luke Campbell of Old Glory D.C. Gradyn Bowd of the Castaway Wanderers kicked two converts.
In women’s rugby, meanwhile, No. 4 sa国际传媒 will play No. 6 Italy in a Test match July 24 at Starlight Stadium in Langford with both sides preparing for the 2022 World Cup from Oct. 8 to Nov. 12 in New Zealand.
