[Pacific Nations Cup] Canada vs. Japan. 07/06/14

[LittleGuy]

FANTASTIC TEAM TRY Paris is in BRILLIANT!!!

 

[Draggs]

Hearn, excellent. Awesome hands from all there, wonderful numbers.

 

[LittleGuy]

I loved Cudmore's offload and Buydens little run setup Paris pulling away brilliantly. Paris and Hearn are having great games. Oddly Hassler has been a little underwhelming. Blevins has been anonymous.

 

[rusty_lock]

Epic first half

 

[LittleGuy]

Epic first half

You always get to see the great tries Rusty!!!!

Hmmmm a Japanese try? Going to TMO?

Another Hassler error on that kickoff, not a good day at the office for him.

 

[LittleGuy]

Not a very good start to the 2nd half from Canada, looking complacent score now at 25-17 for Canada and the subs are being rung.

 

[LittleGuy]

Wow another game where Canada blows a big lead, Blevins way out of position. 25-24 now with 15-20 to go.

 

[LittleGuy]

This is turning into a disaster, one of the worst halves Canada has had in years. Japan now up 31-25 what on earth is going on. Adron with a massive brain fart earlier making a kick out on the full.

 

[LittleGuy]

I have to rush out as soon as this one is over, what a dreadful 2nd half ugggghhhh is all I can say.

 

[CDN_Rugby]

This is turning into a disaster, one of the worst halves Canada has had in years.

This. I am so disappointed by how this game played out. Blevins is done.

 

[LittleGuy]

This. I am so disappointed by how this game played out. Blevins is done.

He was dreadful, I'll do my player ratings tommorow, should look like a bipolar list with a couple of 8's mixed in with some 2's-4's.

 

[rusty_lock]

F! It's time to drink

 

[poopiepeople]

Kinda glad I missed this one then. Looks like it was hard to take.

 

[Canucks]

Well that sucked.

Umm our rucking was good.

Everything else was abysmal.

Set pieces sucked. Decision making sucked.

What the hell are we doing in attack? Our forwards think they are sonny bill williams with their crazy offloading.

Our backs almost defend themselves the way they neutralise their own speed by running sideways. Our flyhalf thinks he's a crash and bang forward. Our flanker thinks he's s kicker. We decided not to defend and our 2 best players did not get one good ball all game. It's almost as if our flyhalf does not recognise quick ball and does not understand that maybe the wingers might be better runners than him and the forwards.

Yikes, Scotland will bend us over next week.

 

[LittleGuy]

Well said Canucks, and now what you;ve all been waiting for my hungover player ratings......this game is hard to rate as players who had good 1st halves played like crap in the 2nd. So I'll have to try and balance all my negativity.


1. Buydens - Set piece was a disaster, but wasn't abysmal from loose, had a nice run to set up Paris' try. 4/10
2. Barkwill - Pretty much the same as Buydens, set pieces were ghastly, but loose play was allright, rucked well and played hard, was kept on the pitch too long. 4/10
3. Marshall - The weakest of the front row, got schooled at scrum time and wasn't as helpful in loose play as B and B. His lack of game time in France this season exposed. 3.5/10
4. Hotson - Perhaps the most anonymous Canadian on the day, didn't get his name mentioned a lot which is better than some on the team I suppose. Scrum struggled. 5/10
5. Cudmore - Easily the best of the front five, made a great offload to set up a Canadian score and ferociously rucked all day long. 7/10
6. Kleeberger - Played hard, rucked well. Got a bit injured before the collapse really took hold and wasn't the same after that. 6/10
7. Moonlight - Best forward on the day, line breaks, a try, worked his ass off. Solid all round effort. 8/10
8. Ardron - Mixed bag, had some moments but broke down along with the rest of the team. Exposed my fears about him as captain didn't steady the ship at all and in fact with a ridiculous kick out on the full helped hasten it. 5/10

9. McRorie - Played fairly well in his debut, wasn't given great ball by a terrible scrum but salvaged something. 7.5/10
10. Jones - Canucks summed this one up well, not completely awful but played FH like he does CT. This is such a gong show position heading into 2015, need to offer O'Leary something to come play for us. 5/10
11. Paris - Outstanding, played like a tiger out there really redeeming himself for some poor matches a couple of years ago. Needs to cool down a bit though in the scuffles. 8.5/10
12. Blevins - Dreadful, an anonymous 1st half followed by one of the most shocking halves in Canadian history, was out of position on three of the Japanese tries. Trainor should have played instead. 1.5/10
13. Hearn - Another good day at the office for Hearn, ran some great lines and his restarts were amazing, tragically went off hurt which seemed to aid in our demise. 8.5/10
14. Hassler - Perhaps the most dissapointing player on the day, his worst game in Canadian colours. Made some silly errors and reallly did not look "into" the game, wasn't an attacking threat either. 4/10
15. Pritchard - Mixed bag, played well at points but needlessly wasted possesion with some uneeded up and unders. Goal kicking was solid. 6/10


16. Tieddemann - Scrum seemed to stabilize a bit when he came on, probably should have come on earlier. 5.5/10
17. Carpenter - Didn't really add a whole lot, worked hard but had a knock on when Canada was moving forward, might struggle to find identity in his jack of all trades role. 5/10
18. Ilnicki - Effectively the same as Tieddeman, scrum stabilized when he came on, but it was a too little too late type deal. 6/10
19. Phelan - Could have been an N/A as he came on quite late, surpised Cudmore put in that many minutes. 5/10
20. Piffero - Late addition to the lineup, should have been brought in for Barkwill twenty minutes earlier, could have been an N/A and can't be too harsh as he was not expected to play. 5/10
21. Mack - Probably the best of the subs, came on and added a spark and was working his butt off and getting quick ball to the backs who didn't do much with it though. 7/10
22. Braid - Not much better than Jones, Spanton made an odd comment about wealth of depth at FH. I guess your wallet could be packed...full of five dollar bills. 5/10
23. Van De Merwe - Looked physically like he just got off the Bataan death march, his muscle mass gone after being out of action for 4-5 months. Looked rusty as expected, maybe should have waited till the fall to start playing again. 4/10

 

[iINDOMINUSxx]

unlucky to canada what an epic comeback from japan. btw Littleguy and the other canadians looking forward to playing us mighty scots next week

 

[Groundhog]

Here's some highlights from this. Looked like a really good match. Canada's tries were lovely and it was a shame to see the Japanese just walk through them three times. Very poor form of some random on the sideline to heckle Fujita when he was injured on the ground. I believe "Get the **** up" was the term used.
Hearn and Paris were impressive, from what I saw.

 

[Big Ewis]

here's a shorter highlight reel of the game:



Canada's third try was WOOHOO !! Forgot what it's like to cheer for your team like that ! Canada fans must've been super excited about that one !
But Canada ultimately must be hugely disappointed with the result...those last two tries never should have occurred for Japan, and especially not that last one. Weakest defense I've ever seen on the clean break there, unbelievably weak effort given Canada were to hang on to the one-point lead and hold for less than 10min...

 

[Blackanuck]

Ugh. Watching that second half was about as much fun as repeated kicks to the junk.

24 hours later and I'm still not sure what to think. I can't believe how easy those tries were for Japan.

 

[goodNumber10]

here's a shorter highlight reel of the game:



Canada's third try was WOOHOO !! Forgot what it's like to cheer for your team like that ! Canada fans must've been super excited about that one !
But Canada ultimately must be hugely disappointed with the result...those last two tries never should have occurred for Japan, and especially not that last one. Weakest defense I've ever seen on the clean break there, unbelievably weak effort given Canada were to hang on to the one-point lead and hold for less than 10min...

Massive LOL @ 3.17, the canadian 23 whiping out the 14. hilarious.

From viewing the longer highlights Japan looked fluid and seemed to be moving their defenders off their line really well, some of that block and slide/masked passing was fantastic.

shame for Canada but that defence was weaksauce.