Canada pulls away to beat BC All-Stars

It was far from perfect, but Canada pulled away in the final quarter to defeat the BC All-Star XV 45-13 at Westhills Stadium on Friday evening. Only four points separated the two sides at halftime but superior fitness and a dominant scrum saw Canada through in the end.

The start was ominous as a flat pass from Shane O’Leary to Conor Trainor created an overlap for Andrew Coe to score from a centre scrum. Just four minutes later, Andrew Quattrin was over on the end of a routine lineout drive to put BC down 14-0.

Discipline let Canada down and Adam McQueen landed two penalty goals, the second after Josh Larsen was sent to the bin for repeat infringements. O’Leary fired back with a penalty of his own, but the All-Stars got a well-earned try after a couple missed tackles left space for Colby Mason to exploit down the left side. McQueen’s extras were on target to make it 17-13 at the break.

The stingy BC defense finally conceded a third try in the 54th minute to Justin Blanchet, the big flanker crashing over after hard work from the scrum was left unrewarded. Blanchet made it a double a dozen minutes later, on hand to take the offload from Travis Larsen over the line.

Larsen himself got in on the act before the end, taking the inside pop pass from Kainoa Lloyd after simple hands put the winger in space. The final try came from Phil Mack, who simply stepped off the back of the advancing scrum after another powerful drive.

Blanchet was named Man of the Match and the award could just as easily have gone to O’Leary for his outstanding performance that saw him kick a perfect seven from seven off the tee to go with his sharp distribution and inch-perfect tactical kicking. The replacement front row of Noah Barker, Benoît Pifféro, and Jake Ilnicki also impressed.

The selectors will now convene to make a number of tough decisions, with the final World Cup squad of 31 to be announced on Tuesday morning in Vancouver. Canada will host the USA at BC Place next Saturday in their final tune-up match before departing for Japan.

 

SCORING

CANADA 45
Tries – A. Coe (7′), A. Quattrin (11′), J. Blanchet 2 (54′, 66′), T. Larsen (69′), P. Mack (76′)
Cons – S. O’Leary 6/6 (8′, 12′, 55′, 67′, 70′, 77′)
Pens – S. O’Leary 1/1 (28′)
Yellow cards – J. Larsen (23′)

BC ALL-STARS 13
Tries – C. Mason (34′)
Cons – A. McQueen 1/1 (35′)
Pens – A. McQueen 2/2 (15′, 24′)

 

TEAMS

CANADA
1 Rob Brouwer, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 3 Cole Keith, 4 Mike Sheppard (capt.), 5 Josh Larsen, 6 Justin Blanchet, 7 Nakai Penny, 8 Luke Campbell, 9 Jamie Mackenzie, 10 Shane O’Leary, 11 Andrew Coe, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Conor Trainor, 14 Jeff Hassler, 15 Theo Sauder

Replacements: 16 Benoît Pifféro, 17 Noah Barker, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Conor Keys, 20 Dustin Dobravsky, 21 James O’Neill, 22 Travis Larsen, 23 Phil Mack, 24 Kainoa Lloyd, 25 Doug Fraser, 26 Will Kelly

BC ALL-STAR XV
1 John Braddock, 2 Tom Larder, 3 Bryce Worden, 4 Dan Wigley, 5 Mike Finnemore, 6 Owain Ruttan, 7 Cole Mosychuk, 8 Nathan Stewart, 9 Reid Watkins, 10 Adam McQueen, 11 Brandon Schellenberger, 12 Luke Bradley, 13 Colby Mason, 14 Johnny Franklin, 15 Blake Mahovic

Replacements: 16 Harrison Smith, 17 Nick Frost, 18 Neil Courtney, 19 Brian Moylett, 20 Connor McCann, 21 Michael Smith, 22 Fraser Hurst, 23 Stephen Gillies

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Chris Assmus (RC)
Assistants: Shanda Mosher-Gallant (RC) & Ryan Alguire (RC)