Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Canada bounced back from their poor start to the Americas Rugby Championship in the best way possible, crushing Chile by 56-0 in Langford on Friday evening. With Westhills Stadium currently undergoing renovations space was limited and the venue reached its limit of 1,160 with the partisan crowd showing their appreciation for seven Canadian tries.
The match could not have started any worse for Chile, as Canada immediately went on the attack and Kyle Baillie broke clean through a wayward defense to score with just two minutes on the clock. Ciaran Hearn added the extras, the first of six successful kicks on a day in a dominant all-around performance.
Hearn landed a penalty before Kainoa Lloyd took over the scoring headlines. His first try came in the 9th minute and before halftime he would add two more to give Canada the bonus point and record his first international hat trick. At 31-0 the game was over as a contest and the Cóndores were playing only for pride in the second half.
Unfortunately it would be difficult even to achieve that. Francisco González Moller horribly botched a left-footed clearance attempt directly after the kickoff and Patrick Parfrey was on the spot to pick up the free try. Replacements had already been summoned but had little effect.
Chile’s woes continued when Andrew Coe went over in the corner at the end of a sharp miss-pass from Gordon McRorie. The flyhalf had only just stepped on the field along with young scrumhalf Will Percillier, and the duo added pace to Canada’s attack.
In the build-up to the score Clemente Saavedra, himself only a few minutes on the pitch, took exception to a Cole Keith tackle and hit the Canadian prop with a swinging arm before following up with a couple jabs. He was sent to the naughty chair but somehow the Cóndores held on with a man down.
Their energy waned in the final quarter as Coe added a second try and McRorie, perhaps to give his own players a breather, knocked over two penalty goals for good measure. The referee had seen enough after the second, and Chile were left to consider what positives could be salvaged from the wreckage.
The Condores will pack their bags for the long trip to Jundiai, Brazil, next weekend. For Canada is a chance to kick up the feet for a day before getting back to work ahead of their Friday-night home game against the Argentina XV.
SCORING
CANADA 56
Tries – K. Baillie (2’), K. Lloyd 3 (9’, 17’, 37’), P. Parfrey (41’), A. Coe 2 (53’, 65’)
Cons – C. Hearn 5/6 (3’, 10’, 18’, 38’, 42’), G. McRorie 1/1 (66’)
Pens – C. Hearn 1/1 (7’), G. McRorie 2/2 (75’, 80’)
CHILE 0
Yellow cards – C. Saavedra (53’)
TEAMS
CANADA
1 Hubert Buydens (17 Noah Barker 54’), 2 Eric Howard (16 Benoît Pifféro 54’), 3 Cole Keith (18 Ryan Kotlewski 78’), 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Kyle Baillie (19 Conor Keys 43’), 6 Justin Blanchet, 7 Lucas Rumball (capt.), 8 Dustin Dobravsky (20 Nakai Penny 54’), 9 Jamie Mackenzie (21 Will Percillier 52’), 10 Patrick Parfrey, 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Ciaran Hearn (23 Doug Fraser 60’), 13 Nick Blevins, 14 Andrew Coe, 15 Theo Sauder (22 Gordon McRorie 52’)
CHILE
1 Marcelo Huerta (16 Claudio Iturra 38’), 2 Augusto Böhme (17 Mauricio Gómez 68’), 3 Matías Dittus (19 Nicolás Ovalle 38’), 4 Javier Eissmann (18 Maximiliano Hurtado 58’), 5 Bastián Burguener (20 Clemente Saavedra 43’), 6 Eduardo Orpis (21 Jaden Laing 58’), 7 Thomas Orchard, 8 Martín Sigren (capt.), 9 Juan Pablo Larenas, 10 Francisco González Moller (22 Domingo Saavedra 54’), 11 Gonzalo Lara, 12 Vicente Ayarza, 13 José Ignacio Larenas (23 Tomás Ianiszewski 38’), 14 Julio Blanc, 15 Christian Huerta
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Henrique Platais (CBRu)
Assistants: Robin Kaluzniak (RC) & Chris Assmus (RC)
TMO: David Smortchevsky (RC)
Attendance: 1,160
