Canada’s Tournament Ends In Disappointment After Tonga Loss

Tonga Capitalizes on Canada’s Mistakes to Claim Victory

Canada falls to Tonga to clinch 6th position at Pacific Nations Cup playoff match /

By Priscilla Jepchumba

Tonga first half dominance gave them edge over Canada, winning 30-17 in the Pacific Nations cup quarterfinal for fifth place play-off on Saturday.

Canada started off positively by winning the ball kick to the Tongans. They piled pressure, leading to a penalty kick, which Peter Nelson hit. Ikale Tahi scored the first try. Tonga scored a second in the 14th minute to go up 14-3.

Jethro Felemi struggled to keep the scrum up and was penalized early. The Prop struggled to stay out of trouble but was yellow-carded just shy of the 20-minute mark for collapsing a Canadian driving maul.

Tonga received a penalty in the last 10 minutes due to Ethan Fryers's high tackle, which Ikale Tahi scored again before the final whistle to make it 25-17.

A series of passes by Tonga resulted in a try for Fiji’s John Tapueluelu. A gap opened in the defense, and John took full advantage.

John burst through to advance the Tonga attack. Spellbinding play by Josiah Unga was finished off with a try. He provided the pace to burn Canada on the outside en route to scoring his side's second try. He finished the game with a deserved try in the corner,30-17 scoreline.

Before the game, the Tongans performed their Sipi Tau war dance as Canadians watched

The young Canadians fared really well in the set pieces but were hurt by mistakes, and Tongan’s attack grabbed points.

“We’ve to take our chances, throughout the tournament it’s been hard to convert in the attack,” said Canada’s Captain Lucas Rumball.

Canada coach Kingsley Jones congratulated his boys for their performance while taking a lot of positives going forward.

“The boys worked hard today, I think it’s a positive step, the set pieces have been good and for sure we are building foundations,” Jones added.

Canada recently lost all its group matches, 55-28, by Japan on Aug 14 at Vancouver and the USA on August 31 in Carson, while Tonga lost 50-19, and 43-17 to Samoa and Fiji, respectively.

The two teams will look to be involved in Bucharest on November 9, where Canada faces Chile while Tonga welcomes Romania.