Alexis Creek’s Jake Ilnicki and his Team Canada teammates will play a winner-takes-all versus the U.S. for a spot at the Rugby World Cup.
A seven-try shootout saw Canada and the U.S. draw 28-28 in the first leg of the two-match aggregate 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifier from Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont. on Saturday afternoon.
Canada got two tries from DTH van der Merwe while Aaron Carpenter also went over for his 17th test try. Shane O’Leary kicked 13 points.
“If we’re going to do better next week, we’ve got to be more clinical than we were today,” head coach Mark Anscombe said. “If you want to win these games you’ve got to make better decisions that what we did out there today.”
van der Merwe became Canada’s all-time try-scoring leader as his brace pushed him past Winston Stanley’s record that had stood since 2003.
“It’s great but I don’t like the accolades that go with it,” van der Merwe said. “I’ll look back at it when I’m older but right now I just want to do as much as I can to help my team.”
Trailing 28-18 after 53 minutes, Anscombe’s men fought back to tie things up at 28-28 as Carpenter’s try got Canada back into the game before O’Leary’s third penalty in the 78th minute tied the game.
“I’m pleased with the manner of coming back from ten down,” Anscombe said. “That showed character but I am flat about a lot of other things.”
But each side would each have a chance to win the game in the final two minutes. Aj MacGinty’s drop goal sailed just wide before Canada managed to win a penalty just inside the USA half but O’Leary pushed his penalty right, leaving the two sides tied heading into next weekend’s decisive encounter.
Canada had taken an early 7-0 lead as van der Merwe tied Stanley’s test try-scoring record in the seventh minute but the USA came roaring back two minutes later through Nick Civetta, scoring off of the ensuing kickoff after Connor Braid couldn’t collect the high ball.
However, van der Merwe would make history in the 18th minute as he picked the ball up from the back of a ruck and ran free to secure his 25th test try.
O’Leary’s penalty pushed Canada’s lead to 15-7 before the U.S. came back into life after tries from Civetta and Mike Te’o gave the visitors a 21-15 lead at half time.
“We should have gone to half time 15-7 up but we concede two tries, one from a scrum and one from a lineout, and that was poor to allow those tries,” Anscombe said.
USA hooker James Hilderbrand was sin binned in the 45th yellow for a high tackle on Phil Mack — O’Leary adding a penalty from the infraction — but despite playing a man down, it was the USA who would take advantage as Te’o intercepted an O’Leary pass and ran 95m for his second try of the day and a 28-18 lead.
With the tie, Canada has still not beaten the USA since 2013 but maintains a 38-17-2 record all-time against the States.
Since the Rugby World Cup’s inception in 1987, Canada has never missed a Rugby World Cup. Canada achieved its best result in 1991 when they reached the quarterfinals before being eliminated by New Zealand. The U.S., who has played in seven of the previous eight tournaments, has never advanced out of the pool stages.
The second leg takes place July 1 in San Diego with kickoff at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT live on TSN.