Canada Corner: MNT Beat Tonga, U-20's Fall In JWRT Final, Pro Contracts, & More

MNT Beat Tonga In Kingston

In a very physical match, the Men's National Team beat Tonga 36-27 to go 3-0 in the Pacific Nations Cup. Despite an early try from Lua Lokotui, Canada took an early lead thanks to three penalties from James Pritchard. Things took a turn for the violent in the 34th minute when Eddit Aholelei was sent off for throwing punches after the referee had already intervened. Canada then capitalized on the advantage with tries from Matt Evans and Sean Duke. Tonga was eventually reduced to 12 men for a period of time after two yellow cards, but they still managed to come back into the match with three tries. Still, it was too little too late. Pritchard added another try for Canada while hitting four penalties. Ciaran Hearn also had a penalty for Canada. Captain Aaron Carpenter played in his 50th match for Canada.

Take the jump to see the full match as well as read more.

U-20's Fall In JWRT Final

The Men's U-20 tam came up short in their bid to earn promotion to the Junior World Championship after they lost to Italy in the final of the Junior World Rugby Trophy over the weekend. In a reverse of the senior men's team match, Canada was the one with disciplinary issues as two players were sent off, allowing Italy to earn a 45-23 win. Italy took a 10-6 lead into halftime, and while Canada took a lead shortly after the half the yellow cards changed the match. The team will have to regroup for next year's JWRT in Hong Kong.

Ardron Joins Ospreys

The Osprey's have added their second Canadian in as many week's as flanker Tyler Ardron will join Jeff Hassler on the team. Both were members of the Canadian 7's team and the folks at BC Rugby News wonder what the two signings mean for the team. Andy Lloyd, the Rugby Operations Manager for the Ospreys noted that "Tyler is an outstanding athlete with a real physical presence, combined with an excellent game awareness, and he will provide genuine competition to the players already here."

Notes:

The World Cup men's 7's team will be announced after the MNT match against Ireland this weekend. The match is expected to draw a record crowd.

The Varsity, the student newspaper of the University of Toronto, has a great profile on Karla Telidetzki.