Jamin Hodgkins and his Canada Men’s Rugby Team will play Brazil in the third-place play-off of the La Vila International Rugby Cup following a 42-20 loss to Spain.
The new four-team tournament kicked off at the El Pantano Stadium in Villajoyosa, with clear yet windy conditions. Facing the host nation, Canada took an early lead off a Penalty Kick from Peter Nelson, but Spain responded quickly to turn the score in their favor. Spain doubled their points in the twelfth minute, followed by a second Penalty Kick from Nelson to narrow the gap to 14-6. Three more converted tries from Spain gave the hosts a 35 - 6 lead at half-time.
“It’s disappointing. Going into the shed I thought our warm-up looked really crisp, I thought our prep all week looked really good. When the pressure came on, we didn’t respond well,” captain Lucas Rumball, who was playing in his 50th cap for Canada, said of the first half. “We had a big goal line stand right at the start of the second half, an unwillingness to give up. We go a man down, we stick it out. We do our job, we work hard and we get somewhat back into the game. Now if we can do that from square one, it’s a completely different story.”
Canada’s defense kept Spain from adding to the scoreline as the second half progressed despite two yellow cards. Gaining momentum and putting pressure on Spain in their half, Canada pushed forward, with Cole Keith scoring the team’s first try of the game, converted by Nelson.
Coming off the bench, Mitch Richardson was the next Canadian to score, securing his first senior international try by diving between the uprights. Another conversion from Nelson put the score at 35 - 20. However, a final Spanish score with less than five minutes left on the clock gave Spain the 42 - 20 win, sending Canada to the third place play-off against Brazil, who lost 48 - 3 to the United States earlier in the day.
“We are really disappointed. It’s imperative to start well in test matches and we failed to do that again. To put in a good performance in the second half and such a poor performance in the first half is really disappointing,” said Head Coach Kingsley Jones. “We compounded errors and were on the wrong end of a few 50/50 calls, but we need to make sure we respond positively and move onto the next job quickly. We defended admirably in the second half despite two yellow cards and it gave us belief. The boys showed a lot of pride and grit, which they needed to do after what was a very, very disappointing first half. We will be working hard this week and find a solution to ensure we have an effective start in next week’s game versus Brazil.”
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