ENGLAND 70 CANADA 14
The fans at Twickenham on Saturday chanted 鈥淔ootball鈥檚 coming home,鈥� referring to that other game in another sport England will be playing today across town at Wembley. England proved not bad in rugby, either.
The Langford-based Canadian national team concluded its ambitious UK Test series with a 70-14 loss to world No. 3 England on the hallowed grounds of Twickenham. That was despite England missing 12 players to the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa.
鈥淪hell-shocked,鈥� is how Canadian head coach Kingsley Jones of Sooke described it. 鈥淲e were rabbits in the headlights. The physicality was too much.鈥�
It followed the 68-12 loss to Wales, another traditional rugby power, last weekend at Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
鈥淚 was disappointed more today than I was in the Wales game,鈥� said Jones. 鈥淭he players are disappointed in themselves. They feel they can do better. We were thrown in the deep end. But that鈥檚 the only way to learn.鈥�
That included Lachlan Kratz, former sa国际传媒 champion in high school with the Oak Bay Barbs, who replaced fellow-Victorian Quinn Ngawati at centre and earned his first cap.
Ngawati, former captain of the St. Michaels University School Blue Jags, earned his first cap by starting last weekend against Wales.
Jones mentioned both as having promising first outings.
Starting alongside Kratz among the backs for sa国际传媒 on Saturday were Ross Braude, Peter Nelson, Kainoa Lloyd, co-captain Ben LeSage, Cole Davis and Cooper Coats. Starting in the forwards were co-captain Lucas Rumball, University of Victoria Vikes alumnus and Castaway Wanderers product Jake Ilnicki, Djustice Sears-Duru, Andrew Quattrin, Reegan O鈥橤orman, Conor Keys, Corey Thomas and Siaki Vikilani. O鈥橤orman started at lock in place of the injured Josh Larsen of Nanaimo.
Dressed in reserve were Ngawati and Will Percillier of Victoria, Eric Howard, Cole Keith, Liam Murray, Donald Carson, Michael Smith and Robbie Povey. Island players on the tour with sa国际传媒 were Kratz, Ngawati, Larsen, Percillier, Doug Fraser of Ladysmith, Isaac Olsen of Victoria and Foster Dewitt of Courtenay.
Ilnicki went out with an injury, but Jones said he was fine. sa国际传媒鈥檚 tries came from Ross Braude and Kainoa Lloyd.
鈥淲e played two of the top teams in the world and hope we didn鈥檛 get the confidence kicked out of us,鈥� said Jones. 鈥淏ut there were positives to take out of it for when we play teams at our level.鈥�
The Canadian Tests against Wales and England were in preparation for the upcoming 2023 World Cup regional qualifiers and are the first games for sa国际传媒 since the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Americas qualifying for the 2023 World Cup in France begins in the fall with sa国际传媒 playing home games against the U.S. on Sept. 4 in St. John鈥檚 and South America No. 1 or No. 2 on Oct. 2 at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
