The round two match of the Rugby World Cup 2015 took place in Burnaby with Tonga running out 28-18 winners over their hosts Canada despite getting off to a slow start at the Swanguard Stadium.
Hooker Aaron Carpenter gave Canada the perfect start when he bulldozed his way over the line in only the third minute, Gordon McRorie adding the conversion and then kicking a penalty to make it 10-0 by the 12th minute.
Kurt Morath missed with his first effort but then opened Tonga’s account with a penalty in the 19th minute, but before long fly-half Liam Underwood broke through the ‘Ikale Tahi defence and offloaded to Carpenter for the hooker to score his first test try double.
A yellow card, though, for Underwood gave Tonga an advantage they quickly converted to cut the deficit to 15-10 at half-time, scrum-half Sonatane Takulua dotting down their first try. Within five minutes of the restart, Tonga hit the front for the first time, replacement Otulea Katoa diving over in the corner after a driving maul from a lineout.
Morath’s conversion and another penalty took Tonga out to 20-15 before he and Canada scrum-half Gordon McRorie traded penalties again to keep the match in the balance with just under half an hour to go in Burnaby.
The score remained at 23-18 until Steve Mafi sliced through the Canadian line and sent Takulua over for his second try of the match. There was still 10 minutes to go but despite piling on the pressure, Canada couldn’t find the scores they needed to make it five wins in a row against Tonga.
“I thought the first 15 or so minutes we played really well,” Canada coach Kieran Crowley said. “After that our set piece didn’t go well and then we just turned over too many balls. There was improvement in a lot of areas but still a lot of areas to improve.
“We had those good periods but you’ve got to do it for the whole game. Take your hat off to Tonga, they fought back, got their game going, made a couple of line breaks which led to points and they deserved their win in the end. We’ve got to regroup, look at the footage and learn from it.”
His counterpart Mana Otai added: “It was 15-3 at one stage and we were staring down the barrel, but I think the boys showed character to crawl out of that. It was really pleasing. I guess that is the nature of the game, we were also desperate for the win. We have some long history of losing to Canada and that was always at the back of our minds so all credit to the guys, they stuck at it.”
The pool stages of the Pacific Nations Cup 2015 conclude on Wednesday in Toronto when USA tackle Tonga, Fiji face Japan and hosts Canada meet Samoa at BMO Field. The final rankings will then determine who faces who on the finals day in Vancouver on 3 August.