Saturday 2 June 2007

Canada storm to victory over USA

Canada capitalised on some desperate USA defending to storm to a 52-10 victory in the Churchill Cup Bowl final at Twickenham.

The Eagles repeatedly missed first-up tackles and paid the price by leaking seven tries in a disappointingly one-sided clash between the north American rivals.

Sean-Michael Stephen and Morgan Williams ran in a brace each while David Spicer, Adam Kleeberger and Dan Pletch also punished the hapless US Eagles, with James Pritchard completing all seven of his kicks at goal.

Contests between the sides have generally been close but Saturday's meeting bore more resemblance to Canada's 56-7 triumph in a World Cup qualifier last August Prop Mike MacDonald barged his way over in the eighth minute to get the USA off to a promising start but after that it was all one-way traffic until winger Salesi Sika crossed in injury time.

MacDonald's touch down rewarded the Eagles' early ambition as they opted to kick a penalty into touch when three points were on offer and scored from the ensuing catch and drive.

Canada replied with a 15th minute try after a magnificent break from winger Justin Mensah-Coker had done the initial damage.

The Albi back offloaded at the right time with the ball going through the hands of Spicer and Craig Culpan before finding man of the match Stephen who crashed over.

Stephen was piercing the USA's defence at will, setting off on one long-busting run after breaking from the back of a scrum, and Pritchard slotted a penalty to signal Canada were in full control.

They extended their lead in the 36th minute when a long miss pass from Ryan Smith sent the impressive Mensah-Coker into space and he found Spicer on his inside shoulder with the Victoria centre coasting over.

Canada continued to rack up the points with considerable help from some fragile defending with former Saracens scrum-half Williams scampering over.

Stephen was still punching holes in the USA's defence and he claimed his second try just six minutes after the interval with Williams then completing his brace.

Kleeberger was next up to breach the whitewash, again barging through some feeble tackles, and Dan Pletch completed Canada's score rout by rounding off an eye-catching move -- before USA winger Salesi Sika ran in an injury-time try.

The scorers:

For USA:
Tries:  MacDonald, Sika

For Canada:
Tries:  Stephen 2, Williams 2, Spicer, Kleeberger, Pletch
Cons:  Pritchard 7
Pens:  Pritchard

US Eagles:  15 Francois Viljoen, 14 Chris Wyles, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Albert Tuipulotu, 11 Sika Salesi, 10 Malifa Valenese, 9 Kjar Kimball, 8 Louis Stanfill, 7 Todd Clever, 6 Mark Aylor, 5 Mike Mangan, 4 Hayden Mexted, 3 Chris Osentowski, 2 Mark Crick, 1 Mike MacDonald.
Replacements:  16 Blake Burdette, 17 Mike French, 18 Inaki Basauri, 19 Dan Payne, 20 Tasi Mounga, 21 David Williams, 22 Vaha Esikia.

Canada:  15 Mike Pyke, 14 Justin Mensah-Coker, 13 Craig Culpan, 12 David Spicer, 11 James Pritchard, 10 Ryan Smith, 9 Morgan Williams, 8 Sean-Michael Stephen, 7 Adam Kleeberger, 6 Stan McKeen, 5 Colin Yukes, 4 Luke Tait, 3 Scott Franklin, 2 Pat Riordan, 1 Kevin Tkachuk.
Replacements:  16 Aaron Carpenter, 17 Dan Pletch, 18 Mike Pletch, 19 Josh Jackson, 20 Nanyak Dala, 21 Ed Fairhurst, 22 Dean van Camp.

Referee:  Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Roy Maybank (England), Bob Mullis (England)
Television Match Official:  Geoff Warren (England)

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