[2014 Mid-Year Test] Canada vs. Scotland 14/06/14

[jonny24]

Just got home from the game. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that red was total bull s h i t. There were a few other call that seemed very iffy from the stands, might be different getting to see the replays more clearly. That game should have been ours.

Other than the reffing, great game, close the whole way through, great atmosphere. Aaron Carpenter's parents were sitting behind us so I talked to his dad a bit which was quite cool. It was nice not to have a final quarter blowout for the casual fans.

Final attendance was ~17800 if I heard the announcement correctly.

 

[LittleGuy]

Rugby Canada's twitter account says 18,788, but I thought I heard 17 as well at the game, maybe we'll get some clarification on that could be an error by the announcer or person on twitter. Either way it's in the range I was expecting, slightly below Irish game but ahead of Italy. The crowd was way better than the Irish game last year, such a better time.

Wonder what the November schedule is lining up to be.

 

[rusty_lock]

First, I apologise for my previous post. I posted while the game was on going as I was on the road and not able to watch live, I was so disappointed by last weeks effort it clouded my judgement. I had a local Rep game I had to be at today and was posting from my phone. I just finished watching the delayed broadcast on TSN. All I can say was that I was unbelievably impressed by what I saw today and my hope was renewed after it was thoroughly extinguished last week. Thankfully no one quoted my previous post so I was able to erase it and hide my embarrassment.

The red card was a disgraceful call. I expect no better from an american TMO but from Fraser...

Words can not describe my feeling for him right now. He should be relegated to Grammar school girls touch rugby or maybe sent to live in a country where there is absolutely no rugby played so he can never inflict his failed judgement on the participants of our wonderful sport.

Drastic improvement at scrum time and glad to hear that Marshall has signed with Hawkes Bay. That should really be a boost. Carpenter was definately and upgrade from Barkwell.

Ardron was much improved, Moonlight continues to impress and Sinclair was good

Mack was stellar

Jones much better

Blevins... Braid needs to start there next week

Hearn has gotten so much better

Paris was good as was Hassler

And Pritch was steady and demonstrated more attack than I thought he had in him.

This game is a win for Canada.

Both teams know it, 18000 fans at BMO know it, every person who watched online or on TV knows it and anyone who watches a replay of Sinclairs red card will know it. Even the lying, cheating american TMO probably knows it, he'll just never admit it. Only Mike Fraser is oblivious to it and maybe those other idiots in Dublin like Lyndon Bray et al.

 

[rusty_lock]

Wonder what the November schedule is lining up to be.

I'm looking forward to seeing it too.

For god sake I hope we get at least one T1 country in the mix.

 

[LittleGuy]

Agree with those sentiments Rusty...don't worry about your 1st post, I'd simply assumed it got held up for some reason it has happened to me once or twice where I posted and it didn't show up for an hour or so.

My player ratings.....

1. Buydens - 7 Scrum was much better today after some early fears he steadied the ship.
2. Carpenter - 7 Best game at Hooker so far, seemed more comfortable in the position the lineout was working well.
3. Marshall - 7 His best game in a while for Canada, a week of extra training with the boys paid off, his new contract should get him more playing time than he got in France.
4. Hotson - 6.5 Probably the weakest of the front five today, but was workmanlike, seems to form a good partnership with Cudmore.
5. Cudmore - 8 Has played really well for Canada this spring, I wish he'd come out for us in games like the Italy one in 2012 but oh well.
6. Sinclair -7.5 Rucked hard, physicality and made some good plays in attack, had a red card that was so pathetic it made Ardron's in the fall seem a good call.
7. Moonlight - 7.5 Don't think we'll be seeing Chauncey O'Toole anymore unless the 7's side needs/wants him.
8. Ardron - 8 One of the most improved Canadians today, composure was more evident, performances like this make my doubts about him as captain seem silly.
9. Mack - 9 Arguably Canada's best player on the day, lots of darting run's and quick ball to the backs. One or two errors on box kicks prevent a perfect score.
10. Jones - 7 Played much more like a Fly Half today, wasn't exceptional but was adequate.
11. Paris - 7.5 Has had a breakout season internationally and club wise one or two handling errors including a really bad knock on lower his score went off early unfortunately.
12. Blevins - 4 Anonymous, better than his disaster last week but isn't adding enough to the side, should be bench depth only.
13. Hearn - 8.5 Amazing run on the try and a sick offload to Hassler, work rate continues to impress, becoming the best "late bloomer" Canada has ever had, a testament to the 7's program as well.
14. Hassler - 7.5 Back to his usual self after an off game vs. Japan last week.
15. Pritchard - 7 Hopefully he dosen't dwell too much on the missed penalty off the post, because he played fairly well aside from that.


16. Barkwill - 5.5 A bit better than last week, panicked towards the end when he overthrew several receivers to put the ball out. Lineout didn't miss a beat with him in for Carpenter. This is how Barks should be used impact sub.
17. Tieddemann - 6.5 Did well in relief looks like the go to at 17 from now on.
18. Ilnicki - 6 Not bad in limited minutes, wonder how he'll fit in when Wooldridge returns, the backup props are finally starting to get challenges for spots, this is good news.
19. Gilmour - N/A Did not play, possibly in part to his late arrival to the team just to make up numbers.
20. Phelan - N/A Did not play either, Hotson and Cudmore not coming off in this close a game.
21. McRorie - 5 Was a downgrade from Mack, had a horrible box kick that led to Scotland's last penalty, probably the only player to play worse this week than last.
22. Braid - 7 Played quite well had some nice runs, more of a threat than Blevins, Rusty's bang on has to start next week
23. Van De Merwe - 7.5 Shook off a lot of the rust, played well for Paris when he went off hurt. Could be a force when he gets healthy and we won't need Blevins starting.

 

[rusty_lock]

I thought we saw glimpses of the old DTH out there in the second half. Isn't that a treat to be able to bring that kind of class onto the pitch as an impact sub. The only disagreement with your assessment would be with McRorie. I thought he was better than a 5. That box kick when he first came on was a shocker but after that I thought he settled down nicely. Being a recent Scottish emigre, I suspect the adrenaline was slamming into his brain pretty hard. The hard part for him is that he plays quite differently than Mack at the same position. Mack brings that explosive 7's feel to the postion, reminding me a little like what we used to see from Morgan Williams. Where as McRorie doesn't but I thought his service of the ball was good.

 

[Blackanuck]

The only disagreement with your assessment would be with McRorie. I thought he was better than a 5. That box kick when he first came on was a shocker but after that I thought he settled down nicely. Being a recent Scottish emigre, I suspect the adrenaline was slamming into his brain pretty hard. The hard part for him is that he plays quite differently than Mack at the same position. Mack brings that explosive 7's feel to the postion, reminding me a little like what we used to see from Morgan Williams. Where as McRorie doesn't but I thought his service of the ball was good.

Maybe it's because I'm relatively new to international rugby, but I often find the timing of substitutions to be confusing. I didn't (and don't) understand the logic behind subbing out Mack (one of the candidates for MoM) for a young guy who was obviously going to be a bundle of nerves against Scotland. And that's not even taking into account the fact that play was somewhere around Canada's 5m line.

Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, but it was hard to be surprised when McRorie gifted Scotland the winning points with that absolute shocker of a box kick.

Was this a case of trying too hard to get him in against Scotland because he would have been ****** off to not get some game action against his old home country? Shouldn't young players be put into positions to succeed and build their confidence? I suppose the coach has to be able to trust his bench, but considering the situation at that time of the game it seemed a bit of a tone deaf decision to me.

/end rant

Other than that, I found the result to be a crushing disappointment, but only because we were in a position to win that match.

Overall the team looked just OK in the first half, but phenomenal in the second half. And there was no last-quarter fade as they've struggled with before.

Lots to feel good about, I just wish that there were more internationals on the schedule to allow this team to build some cohesion and momentum. Considering how much they improved in one week, I sure would like to see what they could achieve over the course of a couple of months together.

 

[Will]

Managed to catch the game at my uncle's who has BT Sport. Needless to say that I was left feeling pretty fortunate to come away with the win, and also very disappointed by another disjointed performance from Scotland.

I don't really understand it. I see a lot of these players play every other week for Glasgow, and they play attacking, offloading rugby which is so far reomved from what Scotland produce. Clearly the players can play, but what is the issue when they wear dark blue?

After watching South Africa blow Wales away earlier in the day I'll admit that I fear the worst for when we play them in a couple of weeks.

 

[CDN_Rugby]

I think I've grieved enough...

I think I can speak for most Canadian supporters when I say that the past two weeks have probably been the most emotionally draining games that we have watched since RWC 2011. I legit felt exhausted after the games. But anyway, this was clearly a far better performance by the men in red.

The Good

- the scrum was fantastic and was every bit as good as Scotland's. Night and day change compared to the Japan match.
- the line-outs, particularly when Carpenter was throwing, were stellar. The set piece in general was really well executed.
- the restarts. Hearn was dynamite. He allowed us to pin Scotland deep on almost every restart.
- to be honest, everything was pretty decent on the Canadian end- I could add a lot of things here.

The Bad

- that red card. It shall live on in infamy. Arguably the worst call I have ever seen in an international test (Ardon's red from last autumn being a distant second).
- that McRorie box kick. Like most of you I think Crowley should have kept Mack on for the whole game. Throwing a kid of Scottish origin into a winnable match against Scotland with a couple minutes left was not a good tactical decision. He must have been nothing but nerves.
- That stupid Barkwill pass when we were pressing the Scottish 22 with a few minutes left. You could tell that DTH was NOT happy with Barkwill on that one.

Player Ratings

1) Buydens- 7.5.- Much better in the scrum this week. Honestly, there weren't any flaws in his game; Buydens was steady and dependable.
2) Carpenter- 8- What can you say about Carpenter? I thought he was our best forward before he came off. Laser accuracy in the line-out and contributed like usual in the loose.
3) Marshall- 7- Not quite as good as Buydens, but a big improvement from last week too. Might have gotten a bit greedy on that double movement when he was going for the try.
4) Hotson- 6.5.- Worked hard, but didn't do anything to stand out, good or bad. A pretty typical Hotson game.
5) Cudmore- 7.5.- Cudmore was dynamite. Made his presence known in the rucks and set piece and played the full 80 as well. I really hope we see him this autumn (and get another crack at a tier 1 country!)
6) Sinclair- 7.5.- Like Cudmore, Sinclair was a physical presence. Too bad the ref thought that was a bad thing...
7) Moonlight-7- Not quite as good as last week, but still performed well.
8) Ardron- 8- Our best loosie today. I never noticed how fast Ardron was before this game, he was always the first guy to the ball on a restart.

9) Mack- 8- Typical Mack game. Fast and slippery.
10) Jones- 7- Better than usual, but still a performance that was neither here nor there.
11) Paris- 7.5.- A few nice touches and a good line break or two. Shame he had to come off early, hard to believe the guy is only 21- it seems like he's been around forever already.
12) Blevins- 6- Was better than the last game (how could he have been worse?) but was still our worst back on the day.
13) Hearn- 8.5.- What a revelation Hearn has been the past year and a bit. He's not vanilla anymore, he's one of our better backs. Did everything really well.
14) Hassler- 7- A decent effort that was forgotten due to better performances by his teammates. Good job supporting Hearn that led to his try, however.
15) Pritchard- 7- A pretty decent effort all around. Probably was kicking himself for that penalty that went off the upright.

16) Barkwill- 5.5.- Pretty average effort. Had it not been for his stupid pass with a few minutes left I think we would have scored a try. We were pressing hard.
17) Tiedemann- 6.5.- The scrum didn't waver when he came on as I feared. Did the job that was required.
18) Ilnicki- 6.5.- Same for Ilnicki. I think this kid has WAY more potential than Tiedemann though.
19) Phelan- N/A
20) Gilmour- N/A
21) McRorie- 5.5.- Clearly the nerves got the better of him when he came on. Aside from a kick that was worthy of Derek Daypuck he was average.
22) Braid- 6- Impressed with him in the centres. Better than Blevins in my book.
23) DTH- 7- Clearly still a bit rusty, but you could see flashes of his brilliance. With Hearn doing so well at 13 I wonder where DTH will play going forward when he is 100% healthy?

In all, this was a fine effort. In fact, it was a game that was stolen from us. Hopefully the boys can channel their frustration and disappointment in the right direction next week and we can lay a whipping on the Yankees.

 

[LittleGuy]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en data-scribe-reduced-action-queue="><p>After a hearing earlier today, Canadian forward <a href="https://twitter.com/jebbsinclair">@jebbsinclair</a> will NOT miss any games as a result of yesterday's red card vs <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Scotland&amp;src=hash">#Scotland</a>.</p>&mdash; RugbyCanada (@RugbyCanada) <a href="https://twitter.com/RugbyCanada/statuses/478287351420944384">June 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[jonny24]

Well that's good news. Would have been shocked if he had.

 

[Beerfalo]

I'm looking forward to seeing it too.

For god sake I hope we get at least one T1 country in the mix.

When will Rugby Canada reveal the Autumn Test games? The Pacific Islanders got most of the T2 games against the T1's in the Fall according to the wiki page. The only non-PI teams that are lined up for a T1 game are USA against the ABs and Georgia against Ireland. Even Georgia has a full schedule with Ireland, Tonga and Japan lined up.

If I was Rugby Canada I'd be trying to get the Maori to come back for another visit and as well as setting up a game with Romania. Then maybe try and get a game with Fiji and/or Samoa in England. With the World Cup next year I think Canada should avoid playing countries like Portugal, Russia and Spain.

 

[LittleGuy]

When will Rugby Canada reveal the Autumn Test games? The Pacific Islanders got most of the T2 games against the T1's in the Fall according to the wiki page. The only non-PI teams that are lined up for a T1 game are USA against the ABs and Georgia against Ireland. Even Georgia has a full schedule with Ireland, Tonga and Japan lined up.

If I was Rugby Canada I'd be trying to get the Maori to come back for another visit and as well as setting up a game with Romania. Then maybe try and get a game with Fiji and/or Samoa in England. With the World Cup next year I think Canada should avoid playing countries like Portugal, Russia and Spain.

Sadly I really think it looks like we are getting the scraps of November with all those teams with full schdeules already, a neutral site game vs. one of the PI's in week three might be about the highest class opponent we can face and Rugby Canada should be calling Romania daily to make sure we can line them up. I would think we'll get stuck with Portugal, Spain, Russia, Belgium maybe even Germany. After last years full slate of quality games for the most part 2014's schedule is very thin like 2012's was.

I'm not sure when Rugby Canada will reveal the list of games it might not be for a while, with the lack of available opponents it could be a schedule patched together last minute, if we play some of these smaller sides at least I hope we play them in their home countries and not in the backwaters of North Wales.

 

[Beerfalo]

I want Canada to push for a rematch against Japan after what's happened the last couple years between our sides. My body is aching for a win against the Blossoms at this point. I think the only game they have scheduled right now is against Georgia. Something like Romania and neutral sites against Japan and one of Samoa/Fiji would be a decent schedule. Anything but the European third tier.

And I still say Canada should be pushing for a yearly Fall contest with the Maori. We don't really have the massive potential market and money that can entice the All Blacks like Japan and USA have but we're more than big enough for the Maori. Plus they are a better side than the PI's and probably a number of T1 sides.

I'm also really displeased that Scotland has a full schedule because Canada deserves a rematch with them after yesterday.

 

[rusty_lock]

My prediction for EOYT is all neutral site games

Nov 8 Japan
Nov 15 Samoa
Nov 22 Tonga

This is a best case scenario.

I guess it is possible that we play Belgium Spain and Portugal but if we do we might as well withdraw from RWC 2015. We are continually screwed when it comes scheduling tests and it appears that that will be continuing.

We got Maori last year only because AIG wanted them in the USA for commercial reasons. We were just an add-on outside the test window.

 

[rusty_lock]

I want Canada to push for a rematch against Japan after what's happened the last couple years between our sides. My body is aching for a win against the Blossoms at this point. I think the only game they have scheduled right now is against Georgia. Something like Romania and neutral sites against Japan and one of Samoa/Fiji would be a decent schedule. Anything but the European third tier.

And I still say Canada should be pushing for a yearly Fall contest with the Maori. We don't really have the massive potential market and money that can entice the All Blacks like Japan and USA have but we're more than big enough for the Maori. Plus they are a better side than the PI's and probably a number of T1 sides.

I'm also really displeased that Scotland has a full schedule because Canada deserves a rematch with them after yesterday.

We don't have anything scheduled with Georgia.

They are scheduled for

Nov 8 Tonga
Nov 15 Ireland
Nov 22 Japan

 

[jonny24]

I think he meant that Japan is scheduled with them, not Canada.

 

[Beerfalo]

I think he meant that Japan is scheduled with them, not Canada.

This is indeed what I meant. The T1's and Georgia all have full schedules according to the wiki page. Samoa is scheduled to play on the 8th and 22nd, Fiji on the 8th and 15th, Tonga on the 8th and 22nd and Japan on the 22nd. Canada and Romania have nothing lined up so far and USA only has the ABs set for November 1st. I wish Australia would have played a T2(Canada) instead of a game against the Barbarians on the 1st but it is what it is.

If I was making the schedule with what looks to be available I'd try for something like this:
Nov 1st: host the Maori again, have it at 1pm Eastern Time as a TV opener to USA/ABs which I believe is scheduled for 3:30pm ET. I just really like the Maori haha.
Nov 8th: neutral site against Japan.
Nov 15th: neutral site against Samoa.
Nov 22th: @ Romania.

What we'll probably get is:
Nov 8th: neutral site against/@ Russia
Nov 15th: @ Romania
Nov 22nd: @ Portugal/Spain

 

[jonny24]

Is there room in the other nation's schedules to do a PNC semifinal and final?

 

[rusty_lock]

The reality is we have not had a significant test against a T1 country during the November window since 2008. This is shameful and has to be corrected, especially in light of the gutting of the PNC.

Playing tests against the likes of Spain, Belgium and Russia are worthless for our development. As a matter of fact, if that is what we end up with I would suggest that that those players playing in the higher leagues in the UK or ITM cup in NZ be left to play there and we go a Canada A and send a developmental team of domestic players.