Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team win final match of Americas Rugby Trophy over Brazil 31-14

October 21, 2022 (São Paulo, Brazil) – Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team concluded their two-game Americas Rugby Trophy competition with a 31-14 win over hosts Brazil at Municipal Stadium Francisco Ribeiro Nogueira in São Paulo, Brazil on Wednesday.

The win over Brazil followed a 36-25 loss to Chile last Wednesday in Canada’s first game of the newly formed development series between the three countries. All matches in the competition were non-capped.

“I thought it was a really good game,” said Head Coach Kingsley Jones. “Brazil brought a lot of value and put us under pressure at times. I am really pleased with the performances from those who started tonight, some who were 19 and 20 years old. What we are trying to create is depth and a lot of guys who put their hand up tonight, putting pressure on the players who have been in our test matches over the last couple of years. We want a deep pool of talent that we can call on to be ready for World Cup qualification in 2025.”

Josiah Morra, Cooper Coats, Robbie Povey, Ross Braude and Siaki Vikilani all got over the line to score tries for Canada in the match. In addition, the foot of Povey contributed six more points on successful conversions to round of the scoring for the Canadians.

Morra got Canada off to a great start in the game, scoring his try less than three minutes into the match. Combined with Povey’s conversion, Canada enjoyed an early 7-0 lead. Later in the first half, Coats added his try to Canada’s total, increasing their lead over Brazil to 14-0 with another Povey conversion.

Only a few minutes after the Coats score, Brazil got on the board with their first try of the match. With the scoreboard now reading 14-7, Povey got the ball down to push his teams lead back to 19-7 in the 32nd minute. However, just before half time Brazil answered with their second try to cut the deficit back to 19-14 heading into the final 40-minutes.

The two sides played a scoreless first 20 minutes of the second half until Braude, who replaced Jason Higgins at scrumhalf, dashed through a pair of Brazil defenders before touching it down for Canada’s fourth try of the match. Canada carried the 24-14 advantage for the remainder of the game until Vikilani scored on the final play of the game. Povey went on to kick his third conversion of the match to seal it for Canada by a final score of 31-14.

After naming a starting fifteen filled with international experience in the first game against Chile, Jones went with a much younger squad for the matchup against Brazil captained by the veteran, Kyle Baillie.

Currently with Canada’s high-performance program, the Pacific Pride, prop Kyle Steeves and flanker Matthew Klimchuk got the start for Canada against a Brazilian team well-known for their strength around the scrum. Steeves logged over 60 minutes of game time in his first experience at the international senior men’s level before being subbed off for Conor Young. After coming off the bench against Chile, Klimchuk tallied 62 minutes across the two games for his first taste of international competition since playing with Canada’s U20 program this past summer.

The fifth overall selection in the 2022 MLR draft by the Toronto Arrows, Owain Ruttan, started opposite Klimchuk at flanker. Ruttan, a Canadian University Men’s Rugby Champion with the UBC Thunderbirds in 2021, adds to his international experience after time in Canada’s U19 and U20 programs in 2017-2018.

Led by experienced fly half, Robbie Povey, Canada’s backline was filled with up-and-coming talent. D’Shawn Bowen, who graduated from the Pacific Pride into Canada’s Men’s Sevens Team, started on the wing opposite Morra, who holds a plenty of international experience from time with the men’s sevens team and the U20 program in 2018. Gabriel Casey and Alex Russell, both of whom came off the bench for Canada against Chile, started in the centers.

For a second-straight game, Pride alumni and prop Emerson Prior came off the bench for Canada. Current UBC Thunderbirds Izzak Kelly got in the action at the 54-minute mark, coming on for Klimchuk at flanker. Kelly’s UBC teammates and twin brothers, Takoda and Talon McMullin came on for Russell and Casey later in the match to finish the game.

With the Americas Rugby Trophy development competition now complete. Canada will soon gather in the Netherlands for a pair of international test matches against the host Dutch and Namibia on November 12 and 19. More details to come.