Canada captures thrilling 22-21 win over Chile in first leg of World Cup Qualifying Series
Rugby 15s Senior Men
Canada and Chile played to a 22-21 final score, Saturday evening at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC. The tightly contested match was the first of two legs in the World Cup Qualifying Series match-up, with the second leg taking place next Saturday in Chile.
Canada and Chile played to a 22-21 final score, Saturday evening at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC. The tightly contested match was the first of two legs in the World Cup Qualifying Series match-up, with the second leg taking place next Saturday in Chile.
Chile opened the scoring in the 23rd minute of play with their first penalty goal conversion. They followed up their opening score with another penalty goal on 31 minutes before Canada’s Corey Thomas answered with a try get his side within a point. A third Chilean penalty on the last play of the half had the sides head into the break with Canada trailing 9-5.
Canada opened up the second half strongly with a try from Ross Braude, followed by a successful conversion from Peter Nelson to give Canada a 12-9 lead. Braude completed his brace less than five minutes later - a successful conversion extended Canada’s lead to 19-9 and the home side appeared to be rolling.
However, Chile showed their resilience and responded with two straight scores to retake a 21-19 lead that they managed to hold until the dying seconds of the game. While trying to run out the clock, Chile was penalized for leaving their feet and Rob Povey made no mistake with the penalty goal on the final play of the game to secure the 22-21 victory.
Canada will carry the 1-point advantage into Chile for the second leg on October 9th at 11:00am PT/2:00pm ET. The game will be streamed live on www.premiersports.tv.
ABOUT RUGBY CANADA
Rugby Canada is the national governing body of the sport of Rugby Union in Canada. They administer and operate Men’s and Women’s Senior and Junior National programs in both rugby XV’s and 7s, as well as govern the Club and community game for more than 30,000 registered participants from coast to coast in conjunction with ten Provincial Union members.
Rugby Canada is headquartered at the Al Charron National Training Centre in Langford, BC, with staff also working from Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Rugby Canada business operations, programs and events are delivered nationwide, including the internationally recognized HSBC Canada Sevens annual tournaments.
ABOUT RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023
The Rugby World Cup has been held every four years since 1987. A benchmark competition for international rugby, it represents the holy grail for any player. Hosted in France in 2023, there will be 600 players from the 5 major continents, divided into 20 teams, all dreaming of the William Webb Ellis Trophy which is awarded to the winning country.
The 2023 tournament will mark the 10th Rugby World Cup with matches starting on September 8, 2023 and concluding 45 days later with the final on October 28.
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