NEWS

USA Rugby & Rugby Canada Player Watch

Written by Joe Harvey | Photo by Neil Kennedy

In their final games of the Summer, players for USA Rugby and Rugby Canada were representing their nations once again in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Last weekend, it was the USA who graced Twickenham with an appearance, but on Saturday it was Kingsley Jones’ Canada who made their way to England’s capital to play the English. Beneath overcast skies, the Canadians lost 70-14, conceding nine tries and a penalty try in the process.

After England opened the scoring in the opening minutes through Jamie Blamire, Canada’s first try came thanks to Toronto Arrows scrum-half Ross Braude. Showing some quick thinking, the South Africa-born half-back identifying some space after Canada gained a penalty to tap-and-go close to the try line and score.

Peter Nelson converted the try, and would do the same for Kainoa Lloyd’s score as the first 40 minutes reached its conclusion. Touching down in the corner, the try wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Toronto’s Ben LeSage floating the pass out wide to his former club teammate.

Between these scores for Canada, four came for England. First was a penalty try, Austin’s Reece O’Gorman sent to the sin bin as a result, Adam Radwan and Joe Cokanasiga making the most of the extra space.

Kingsley Jones would have no doubt felt aggrieved that England weren’t reduced a man permanently after Lewis Ludlow put his leg into the ruck, an incident that meant Seattle Seawolves prop Jake Ilnicki had to leave the field.

England closed out the half with a second try for Blamire and in the second period pressed on, Canada tiring as the half went on. By the conclusion of the game, England scored nine tries, Radwan and Blamire each bagging hat-tricks, the Canadians leaving everything on the turf in the country’s first visit to West London in 17 years.

Having added depth to his squad these past few weeks, NOLA Gold’s Lachlan Kratz, Braude, New York’s Quinn Ngawati, Toronto’s Tyler Rowland and Siaki Vikilani, as well as San Diego’s Michael Smith, LA’s Corey Thomas and Houston’s Liam Murray all getting their first caps.

It was also the first opportunity for an all-new coaching group to assemble and try to assert their game-plans in person for the first time since the previous Fall, Kingsley Jones happy with the progress that has been made in a short space of time, despite results not having gone their way.

“We review things all the time and we spoke last night about how positive this has been,” Jones told majorleague.rugby. “The comradery between the staff and players is fantastic, as good as in any environment and that is often a good sign that you are going to get a good performance.

“My meeting on the bus here today was based on that, we have had a good two weeks, progressed a lot, but we are measured on how we play out there today. Unfortunately, we didn’t deliver that as well as we would have liked, obviously we are always a tough challenge, but certainly we have come a long way in how we work together.

“There is still a lot further to go, but that has been a real positive for us and despite the tough games that we have had, it has certainly been a real positive and a big learning for us all.

“Without these two weeks, we would have been really under the pump to perform (in the qualifiers), it is the same for the USA, it was critical for them to play these two games. So, really important, lots of good, lots of learning, but just disappointed with the scoreboard in both games.”

Over in Dublin, the Eagles were unable to build on their positive outing at Twickenham the weekend prior. Seattle’s Riekert Hattingh was red carded in the 71-10 loss at the Aviva Stadium, in what can only be described as a day to forget.

After Ireland had already registered a converted try and a penalty, LA’s Luke Carty got the Eagles on the scorecard thanks to a well-struck penalty, but by the end of the first period Gary Gold’s team had conceded four tries.

It was a performance compounded by errors, Ireland making the most of their momentum. Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher scored four tries before being substituted in the 55^th minute, whilst Robert Baloucoune, Stuart McCloskey, Nick Timoney, Hugo Keenan, Gavin Coombes and Finlay Bealham all going over the whitewash for the men in green.

Utah Warriors’ scrum-half Michael Baska scored the USA’s only try, Austin Gilgronis’ full-back Will Magie adding the conversion. It was a day to remember for NOLA’s Andrew Guerra, the 2020 MLR Draft pick coming off the bench in the 73^rd minute and replacing his club teammate, Cam Dolan.

“I think Ireland out-enthused us a bit,” USA and Austin captain Bryce Campbell said. “We came off to a good start and just didn’t ride the momentum early. It wasn’t for lack of effort, but their expansive game out wide tested us a lot today.

“There’s always a bigger picture for us in these last two weeks. We learned a lot. We didn’t necessarily come here to win a game; we had a lot of confidence in our forwards to get it done early. I think we’d have done the same thing; we just didn’t finish the opportunities.”

With their tours done for now, the USA Eagles and Canada will not be in action until September when the teams will play each other in back-to-back games as they hope to secure qualification for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.