sa国际传媒 put up an admirable effort against France, one of the great rugby nations, before falling 41-18. sa国际传媒 was still in it midway through the second half at 24-18 before a capacity crowd of 30,717 that included Prince Harry at Stadium mk in Milton Keynes, England.
鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of the performance of the guys,鈥� said Canadian head coach Kieran Crowley of Mill Bay, during the post-game news conference.
鈥淭hey gave it everything and I couldn鈥檛 ask for anymore. We got within six points of France, but then made a couple of basic mistakes and we gave away a couple of penalties and we were under the gun again,鈥� added Crowley, a Kiwi and World Cup champion in 1987 as a player with the New Zealand All Blacks.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 afford to do that. The guys are gutted in the changing room. We competed for large periods of the game and just didn鈥檛 get the result, but I鈥檓 very proud of the team.鈥�
The first Canadian try featured an outstanding combination from Ciaran Hearn from the Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay, Phil Mack of Victoria and Matt Evans of Duncan, finished off by Welsh pro DTH van der Merwe of Victoria, who scored his third try in as many games.
The other Canadian try came from front-line Cornish Pirates pro Aaron Carpenter from Brantford, Ont. Fly-half Nathan Hirayama of the University of Victoria Vikes kicked two penalty goals and a convert for sa国际传媒.
Wesley Fofana, Guilhem Guirado, Rabah Slimani, Pascal Pape and Remy Grosso scored the tries for France, the 2011 World Cup finalist and current No. 7.
sa国际传媒 is 1-8 all-time against France, but Canadian management stressed the positives of Thursday鈥檚 performance before a capacity crowd on a big stage.
鈥淲e鈥檇 love to have the opportunity to play bigger international games and these boys deserve it on tonight鈥檚 performance,鈥� said Canadian team GM Gareth Rees during the post-game news conference.
No. 18 sa国际传媒鈥檚 earlier Group D games were a 50-7 setback against two-time defending Six Nations champion and current No. 4 Ireland, before more than 70,000 fans at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and a plucky 23-18 loss to Six Nations team and current-No. 14 Italy before 33,120 fans at Elland Road in Leeds.
sa国际传媒 has not been to the World Cup quarter-finals since SMUS- and UVic Vikes-grad Rees starred in 1991. The Canadians will again not advance past the group stage. They close out play Tuesday against No. 17 Romania at 32,312-seat Leicester City Stadium before the centralized players return to the Rugby sa国际传媒 Centre of Excellence at Westhills Stadium in Langford.
