Canada Selects Beaten by Castres

The Canada Selects were beaten by Castres on Saturday. Played at the Stade de la Balmette in Lacaune, France the 2018 Top 14 champions defeated the Canadians 47-17.

For Castres the match marked the beginning of preseason matches. Their impressive win has the reigning French champions on track ahead of the new season.

The match was an altogether different entity for the Canada Selects. The North Americans are in France preparing for their World Cup qualifying do-or-die tournament in November. Canada’s test side will face Germany, Hong Kong, and either Namibia or Kenya in a tournament to determine the Repechage Winner.

Canada simply must win the tournament. So much is on the line including Canada’s proud history of playing at every World Cup. Yet it goes deeper as World Rugby funding depends heavily on participating in a World Cup.

Head Coach Kingsley Jones is using the Canada Selects specifically to finalize details ahead of the repechage tournament. In his first of two matches in France on tour tries were scored by Phil Mack and Theo Sauder, while Guiseppe du Toit landed seven points via two conversions and one penalty.

Castres’ 30-point victory began with a penalty try. Ray Barkwill was sent to the bin for collapsing the maul in a scoring position.

The 4th-minute score would be responded to by a du Toit penalty kick in the 11th minute but Castres were in control. Hooker Kevin Firmin went over to give Castres a 14-3 lead after 13 minutes.

The Canadians were having problems in the scrum. A 27th minute offense led to a second penalty try being awarded to Castres with Cole Keith handed a yellow card. Before the interval winger Julien Caminati crossed, doing so after good work from Argentine fly half Benjamín Urdapilleta.

The 26-3 half time lead would be quickly eroded by the Canadians. Two early tries in the second half had the game poised at 26-17 after 50 minutes. Sauder raced clear on a long-range counter attack, and Mack showed his pace to slip through the CO defense.

Castres, though, recovered with Martin Laveau breaking through to score. Florian Vialelle, and Wilfrid Hounkpatin added further tries to complete a 47-17 victory.

 

SCORING

CASTRES 47
Tries – Penalty try (4′), K. Firmin (13′), Penalty try (27′), J. Caminati (30′), M. Laveau (52′), F. Vialelle (62′), W. Hounkpatin (80′)
Cons – B. Urdapilletta 1/2 (14′), Y. Le Bourhis 3/3 (53′, 63′, 80′)
Yellow cards – M. Rallier (38′)

CANADA 17
Tries – T. Sauder (43′), P. Mack (50′)
Cons – G. du Toit 2/2 (44′, 51′)
Pens – G. du Toit 1/1 (11′)
Yellow cards – R. Barkwill (4′), C. Keith (27′)

 

TEAMS

CASTRES OLYMPIQUE – 1st HALF
1 Tudor Stroe, 2 Kevin Firmin, 3 Daniel Kötze, 4 Christophe Samson, 5 Rodrigo Capó Ortega, 6 Baptiste Delaporte, 7 Anthony Jelonch, 8 Alex Tulou, 9 Rory Kockott, 10 Benjamín Urdapilleta, 11 Julien Caminati, 12 Yann David, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 14 Taylor Paris, 15 Scott Spedding

CASTRES OLYMPIQUE – 2nd HALF
1 Antoine Tichit, 2 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 3 Paea Fa’anunu, 4 Christophe Samson, 5 Victor Moreaux, 6 Yannick Caballero, 7 Camille Gerondeau, 8 Ma’ama Vaipulu, 9 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 10 Yohan Le Bourhis, 11 Martin Laveau, 12 Florian Vialelle, 13 Thomas Combezou, 14 Armand Batlle, 15 Scott Spedding

Replacements: Tapu Falatea, Marc Clerc, Steve Mafi, Yohan Domenech, Luca Tharin, Wilfrid Hounkpatin

CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Ray Barkwill, 3 Ryan Kotlewski, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Lucas Rumball, 7 Matt Heaton, 8 Luke Campbell, 9 Phil Mack (capt.), 10 Patrick Parfrey, 11 Cole Davis, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Kainoa Lloyd, 15 Theo Sauder

Replacements: 16 Eric Howard, 17 Noah Barker, 18 Cole Keith, 19 Adrian Wadden, 20 Grant Cowell, 21 Jorden Sandover-Best, 22 Robbie Povey, 23 Mike Nieuwenhuysen, 24 Josh Thiel, 25 Aidan McMullan, 26 Andrew Ferguson, 27 Hubert Buydens, 28 Doug Fraser