Late try gives Leinster win over Canada

Hugo Keenan’s try in the 80th minute gave Leinster a 38-35 win over Canada at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton on Saturday afternoon. The home side had done well to recover from a poor opening half that saw them down 19-0 until the 40th minute, but it wasn’t enough against their determined visitors.

Leinster were missing virtually their entire first string side on international duty but still looked convincingly the better of the two in the opening forty. Their set piece was dominant throughout, sending the Canadian scrum backwards and disrupting both the lineout and the maul.

It was the scrum that created the first try. With advantage on the collapse, Max Deegan was there to pick and drive over the line. The second was a bizarre sequence that first saw Barry Daly’s pass intercepted by Tyler Ardron, but the Canadian captain’s pass attempt was in turn snatched by Ed Byrne, who passed to brother Bryan for the simplest of finishes.

A third Leinster try before halftime was scored by Deegan again, and again set up by a dominant scrum. Caelan Doris picked off the back and was stopped just short but Deegan was in perfect position to pick and fall over the line for his second.

Canada finally got on the board on the stroke of halftime after Bryan Byrne was binned for team infringements. DTH van der Merwe was driven into touch but Leinster’s lineout throw was off target with Lucas Rumball instead the recipient. Ciaran Hearn took it on further and Evan Olmstead muscled his way over from short range.

A stable Canadian scrum finally arrived early in the second half with the Leinster pack still down to seven. Ardron picked to the left side and went through the tackle attempt of Hugh O’Sullivan to crash over the line. Peter Nelson’s second conversion closed the gap to just five points.

The lead changed hands just before the hour mark. Nelson’s wide ball found Ben LeSage, and after pulling in two defenders he put Patrick Parfrey into space for a straight run to the line. Josh Murphy’s desperation cover tackle wasn’t enough to prevent the score.

A reply from the visitors came in short order. Rory O’Loughlin skipped through LeSage’s arms and it was Murphy on hand to take a short pass and power over for the score. From the restart, however, Kyle Baillie charged down Harry Byrne’s clearance attempt and slid over to restore Canada’s lead.

It was stretched by a second try from Parfrey. Justin Blanchet quick pass put Nick Blevins around the corner on the short side, and the replacement center worked a lovely give-and-go with van der Merwe, the final pass handing Parfrey a clear run-in from 10 meters out.

The win wasn’t to be, however. Leinster’s pack rolled up their sleeves and ground their way over with Deegan proving his class to stretch over for his hat trick. With time up the board the forwards again worked their way into scoring position until Harry Byrne called for the ball, with Keenan bouncing through two defenders and in for the try.

Canada will continue their Rugby World Cup preparations in Langford next Friday evening when they face a BC All-Stars XV at Westhills Stadium.

 

SCORING

CANADA 35
Tries – E. Olmstead (40’), T. Ardron (47’), P. Parfrey 2 (57’, 66’), K. Baillie (63’)
Cons – P. Nelson 5/5 (40’, 48’, 58’, 64’, 67’)

LEINSTER 38
Tries – M. Deegan 3 (7’, 24’, 71’), B. Byrne (18’), J. Murphy (61’), H. Keenan (80’)
Cons – C. Frawley 2/3 (19’, 25’), H. Byrne 2/3 (72’, 80’)
Yellow cards – B. Byrne (39’)

 

TEAMS

CANADA
1 Hubert Buydens, 2 Eric Howard, 3 Matt Tierney, 4 Evan Olmstead, 5 Conor Keys, 6 Kyle Baillie, 7 Lucas Rumball, 8 Tyler Ardron (capt.), 9 Gordon McRorie, 10 Peter Nelson, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 12 Ciaran Hearn, 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Taylor Paris, 15 Patrick Parfrey

Replacements: 16 Benoît Pifféro, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Mike Sheppard, 20 Justin Blanchet, 21 Matt Heaton, 22 Luke Campbell, 23 Phil Mack, 24 Shane O’Leary, 25 Nick Blevins, 26 Conor Trainor, 27 Theo Sauder, 28 Andrew Coe

LEINSTER
1 Ed Byrne, 2 Bryan Byrne, 3 Michael Bent, 4 Ryan Baird, 5 Scott Fardy (capt.), 6 Max Deegan, 7 Will Connors, 8 Caelan Doris, 9 Hugh O’Sullivan, 10 Ciaran Frawley, 11 Barry Daly, 12 Conor O’Brien, 13 Rory O’Loughlin, 14 Adam Byrne, 15 Jimmy O’Brien

Replacements (from): Ronan Kelleher, James Tracy, Peter Dooley, Vakhtang Abdaladze, Ross Molony, Josh Murphy, Martin Moloney, Paddy Patterson, Harry Byrne, Joe Tomane, Cian Kelleher, Hugo Keenan

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Moe Chaudhry (RC)
Assistants: Michael Jones (RC) & Chris Micheletti (RC)
TMO: Andrew Hosie (RC)