[EOYT] Portugal vs. Canada 23/11/13

[LittleGuy]

it was only portugal u were playing its not like your versing the all blacks or something like that

Dala has been a consistently good player for Canada against quality oppostion and is known as a solid 7's player that plays at an elite level on the IRB core circuit. It's not like he's some guy who we all of a sudden love becuase he played great against a dour Os Lobos side.

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

Dala has been a consistently good player for Canada against quality oppostion and is known as a solid 7's player that plays at an elite level on the IRB core circuit. It's not like he's some guy who we all of a sudden love becuase he played great against a dour Os Lobos side.

never seen him play so i dont know if hes good or not

 

[Canadian_Rugger]

never seen him play so i dont know if hes good or not

You obviously don't watch a lot of Canadian rugby then as he has featured in every match we played and started against Romania, Portugal and NZ Maori this November. He has 39 Caps with the Senior Men's team. I find he never gets any real kudos for his good play but he impresses me every time he gets on the pitch. Plays in a similar fashion to Yannick Nyanga or Serge Betsen.

 

[psychic duck]

Dala has been a consistently good player for Canada against quality oppostion and is known as a solid 7's player that plays at an elite level on the IRB core circuit. It's not like he's some guy who we all of a sudden love becuase he played great against a dour Os Lobos side.

In fairness I didn't expect Portugal to get quite this large a thrashing considering what Canada had missing. I know their new coach has been playing a very inexperienced side and gave 9 new caps out against Fiji, but they fought hard for the first 60 minutes in that game. In the ENC they have a reputation for being gutsy and have lost by narrower margins to Georgia and Romania than some of the other teams in the division.

 

[LittleGuy]

In fairness I didn't expect Portugal to get quite this large a thrashing considering what Canada had missing. I know their new coach has been playing a very inexperienced side and gave 9 new caps out against Fiji, but they fought hard for the first 60 minutes in that game. In the ENC they have a reputation for being gutsy and have lost by narrower margins to Georgia and Romania than some of the other teams in the division.

I had picked a much closer scoreline as well, I think I had Canada by 12 on superbru, and certainly wasn't expecting a 44 point win. It seemed that Portugal sort of gave up for large stretches of the match especially after they finally got a try to reward the home crowd. Previous results had been much closer, I wonder if the travel back from Brazil left some of the guys fatigued. I know they were missing Bardy and some other good players, but guys like Leal and Uva have been a part of the program for ages and aren't complete stiffs. Bettencourt looked pretty decent had a nice try and handoff on Pritch.

 

[canadafan]

Dala is a great impact sub, not a started against top tier opposition.

 

[canadafan]

BTW, McCann is back playing in Canada with James Bay.

 

[LittleGuy]

BTW, McCann is back playing in Canada with James Bay.

Yeah saw that, he was Player of the week in the CDI. Wouldn't mind seeing him get a chance in the PNC next year, or certainly the ARC lineup.

 

[canadafan]

Yeah, even in the CRC would be good. With Underwood with the Blues, would be interesting to see which squad he plays for.

 

[Frank Tilson]

What happen to Nate Hirayama for this tour???

 

[canadafan]

They finally realized that he is crap at XVs, thank god.

 

[LittleGuy]

What happen to Nate Hirayama for this tour???

Broke his leg during the last 7's event. Hopefully we'll be good to go for most of the 7's series though.

 

[Toko_11]

Will Canada and US play Geo/Rom again next year ? I've grown quite fond of these fixtures it's way more fun than watching Geo vs Romania all the time and I'm sure Canadians feel the same way about playing USA OVER and Over and over and....

also you can measure your progress with this from year to year. I think these teams are very much in the same bracket, for example if you made a tournament with 4 of them you could never guess who would come out on top. unpredictability makes it all the more exciting! Its a pity they won't let us play in the Pacific Nations cup -_- that would solve soo many problems at once!

 

[LittleGuy]

Will Canada and US play Geo/Rom again next year ? I've grown quite fond of these fixtures it's way more fun than watching Geo vs Romania all the time and I'm sure Canadians feel the same way about playing USA OVER and Over and over and....

also you can measure your progress with this from year to year. I think these teams are very much in the same bracket, for example if you made a tournament with 4 of them you could never guess who would come out on top. unpredictability makes it all the more exciting! Its a pity they won't let us play in the Pacific Nations cup -_- that would solve soo many problems at once!

I'm really not sure Toko, I know are June schedule is lined up again, with Scotland visiting here June 14th, Japan visiting at around the same time for PNC. We also have our other PNC matchups, so that fills up the Spring schedule. I haven't heard anything at all about next November, other than a few Tier One sides have filled up their fixture list and we won't be playing them.

I wouldn't rule out another test vs. Georgia next year. Maybe Belgium and Spain will be brought into the mix as well, and there were some hints the Maori game might be done again, but nothing settled.

 

[Canadian_Rugger]

I'm really not sure Toko, I know are June schedule is lined up again, with Scotland visiting here June 14th, Japan visiting at around the same time for PNC. We also have our other PNC matchups, so that fills up the Spring schedule. I haven't heard anything at all about next November, other than a few Tier One sides have filled up their fixture list and we won't be playing them.

I wouldn't rule out another test vs. Georgia next year. Maybe Belgium and Spain will be brought into the mix as well, and there were some hints the Maori game might be done again, but nothing settled.

I hope they don't do the Maori game again next year. If they do I want to see them host it during the actual test window so we can have our best players released. It is not worth it if we throw our B-Side out against them. I also wouldn't mind if we played someone like Argentina in November at home, prior to heading over for a European tour.

 

[LittleGuy]

I hope they don't do the Maori game again next year. If they do I want to see them host it during the actual test window so we can have our best players released. It is not worth it if we throw our B-Side out against them. I also wouldn't mind if we played someone like Argentina in November at home, prior to heading over for a European tour.

We also had to face Georgia on slightly shorter rest, and without Carpenter and Wooldridge who got hurt in what was really a glorified exhibition game.

 

[Frank Tilson]

How was that there B side?? The game was good to have and the revenue good for Canada

 

[LittleGuy]

How was that there B side?? The game was good to have and the revenue good for Canada

I agree on the revenue and it was great to see the turnout from the fans, but we were missing a pile of 1st/2nd choice players due to them not being released by their clubs eg. Pritchard, Sinclair, Macenzie, Beukeboom. In fact we were lucky to get Ardron and Hassler released by the Ospreys and we had to not play them against Portugal because of it.

I really think with a 1st choice lineup it would have gone down to the wire, as it is I'm very glad the game was reasonably competitive I was worried to death we would get destroyed in front of such a large crowd and television audience but the boys held up till late when the Maori pulled away.

 

[Frank Tilson]

Only two of those players consistently start (Pritchard Sinclair) Two guys dont change the dynamic that much. They are top players but thats not a 2nd choice team 2/23 mathematically doesnt make the team that much weaker. For argument sakes lets say 4/23 (Marshall and Beukeboom) it still isnt a 2nd rate team. The last play of the game was a try to Maori because of a overthrow from Carpenter and a knock on gone undetected by the ref earlier that lead to a try. Game easily should be 26-15

 

[LittleGuy]

It's certainly not our full strength side, compared to the rest of the November tour it wasn't that bad at all because we were missing a pile of these pro's for all the other matches. But having this game again outside the test window and this would likey be close to our best possible team again(if Osprey's are generous enough to release Ardron and Hassler and Pirates with Evans and Carpenter). If we hadn't gotten some love from those clubs we could have gone into the Maori side with pretty much our ARC lineup which struggled beating a young Uruguay side. It was a very risky decision to have the game, we really could have been thrashed had, Hassler, Ardron, Evans, Carpenter and Phelan not been released. Even Buydens we lucked out that Manawatu didn't make an ITM cup final or he would have been heavily fatigued from travel.

Our Maori side

1- Hubert Buydens, 1st
2- Ray Barkwill, 1st or maybe 2nd
3- Doug Wooldridge, 2nd
4- Jon Phelan, 3rd maybe 4th
5- Tyler Ardron, 1st(but out of position here at lock he'd usually be like 5th or 6th)
6- Nanyak Dala, 2nd
7- John Moonlight, 2nd possibly 1st I'll grant
8- Aaron Carpenter, Captain, 1st
9- Phil Mack, 1st
10- Liam Underwood, 1st (I would think, we are fairly dour here)
11- Conor Trainor, 2nd (possibly even lower now has been quiet lately and is usually at CT)
12- Harry Jones, 3rd (2nd at FH lower at CT)
13- Ciaran Hearn, 2nd (arguably 1st against weaker opp.)
14- Jeff Hassler, 1st
15- Matt Evans, 1st (maybe 2nd)

Bench

16- Jake Ilnicki, 4th (not even a specialist Hooker, Carpenter had to fill in for Barkwill)
17- Ryan March, 5th?
18- Aaron Flagg, 5th
19- Kyle Gilmour, 5th
20- Adam Kleeberger, 3rd (has been higher in past but recovering from injury)
21- Jamie Mackenzie, 2nd
22- Pat Parfrey, 5th
23. Connor Braid, 4th (maybe higher at FH )

My summaration, starters sort of at B+ maybe even A-, with possibly the weakest bench I've ever seen Canada put out in a match (outside of 20, 21)