First win against Fiji since 1995. Canada looked good all game, and actually matched them physically. They had a gameplan to tackle with cut down tackles and it worked. It took the big Fijians down.
They had to dig deep for the win at the end as fiji was coming on strong, but they held it. So proud of them!
Canada is now 2-0 in it's first Pacific Nations Cup. Next up, the favourites to win it, Tonga.
Congrats on your teams winning performance Can. hope they can pull it through. Think they now have a chance to take the cup?
The Tonga game will be the big one. Even if we win that one we still have to probably beat Japan because Fiji and Tonga will probably get the 4 try bonus point win over the USA. Our head coach, Crowley, has said that the goal this year is to win our two 2015RWC qualifying games. So I'm guessing this tournament is already a success with two wins. If we win 3 games It won't matter where they finish, I will be very happy. That's very possible with us playing Japan in our last game. But those little buggers always play us tough.
Also, it would be nice to have our best team on the field. A lot of our best players are resting from their NH seasons and waiting for the 2015RWC qualifying games instead of playing these ones.
Can - if you win those qualifying games you'll be in the France/Ireland/Italy pool.
If you lose, looks like there would be a 2 game playoff with Uruguay which I think either the US or Canada should win for the spot in the South Africa/Samoa/Scotland pool.
Do you have a preference? besides obviously beating down your neighboring rival :)
First preference is to just beat the Americans. Then figure it out later.
I would like to be Americas 1 in the Fance pool as Europe 2 will be in there as well. SA's pool has Asia 1 which will be Japan, and for whatever reason we always struggle against them. So in the French pool we will probably get at least a win against Europe 2 which will be Romania, or Georgia I'm guessing. Italy will be our only other shot at an upset in that pool, but they looked good last 6 nations so that might not be a possibility.
As every WC it will be about development, and being able to play against top flight teams. Hopefully with us now in the PNC every year we can start to gain a little bit so we can actually go to WC's with higher aspirations then 1 win. Rugby Canada is making a big push now as well to get more games scheduled for the boys in our summers. We have a total of 8 games this summer which is very good. USAx3, Japan, Tonga, Fiji, Ireland, and the Maoris.
