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Langford-based Rugby sa国际传媒 is beginning to learn the hard lessons for Canadian sport already absorbed in international men鈥檚 soccer and hockey.
The U.S. has surged ahead in the former and at least caught up in the latter. Once the Americans take an interest in a sport, it鈥檚 hard to keep up.
Saturday was a rugby case in point times two.
The world No. 16 U.S. defeated No. 19 sa国际传媒 30-22 in an Americas championship Test match in Austin, Texas, followed by a 19-18 U.S. victory over sa国际传媒 in the one-game North American qualifier for the 2016 Junior World Cup.
Gord McRorie led sa国际传媒 with 15 kicking points in the Americas Cup senior Test.
A 55-metre penalty goal at the death by Ben Cima, as towering as it was clutch, gave the Americans victory in the World Junior qualifier.
This comes after the U.S. defeated sa国际传媒 last year in the final of the North American and Caribbean men鈥檚 sevens qualifier for the 2016 Olympics to advance directly to Rio while relegating sa国际传媒 to a last-chance Summer Games qualifier later this year in Monaco.
sa国际传媒 began its extended build-up to the 2019 World Cup in Japan with a victory over No. 20 Uruguay last Saturday at Westhills Stadium in Langford to kick off the Americas Rugby Championship.
Among the chief issues uncovered during the 2015 World Cup post-mortems was the lack of Test match opportunities for second-tier nations compared with the top-flight nations, so World Rugby introduced the Americas Championship this year.
Francois Ratier, the Canadian women鈥檚 head coach, is guiding the men鈥檚 national team on an interim basis until a replacement is hired for Kieran Crowley. The latter guided sa国际传媒 through the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, but left last month to become head coach of a pro team in Italy.
鈥淲e had a few moments where we lacked concentration at some key moments,鈥� Ratier said in a statement following Saturday鈥檚 loss to the U.S.
鈥淭hese little mistakes made the big difference.鈥�
sa国际传媒 continues the Americas Championship against world No. 42 Brazil next Saturday at 4 p.m. at Westhills Stadium.
Tickets are on sale at events.rugbycanada.ca.
sa国际传媒 concludes with away games at No. 5-ranked Argentina on Feb. 28 and at No. 24 Chile on March 6.
