McMullin twins score first career tries in opening Pacific Nations Cup loss to Japan at BC Place

Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team met Japan in their first match of the reimagined Pacific Nations Cup on Sunday in Vancouver, with Japan taking a 55-28 win at BC Place.

Japan had a strong start, taking a 14-0 lead in the eighth minute. Andrew Coe seemed to score for Canada shortly afterwards, but his try was called off due to a knock on. Canada worked to rally back, but Japan scored three more tries in the first half, with a successful penalty kick in the 26th minute helping them to a 38-0 lead.

Canada’s first try of the game did end up coming from Coe, who scored in the 37th minute off the kick and chase. Peter Nelson kicked a good conversion to bring the score to 38-7 at half-time.

“I said to the boys out there, I think I’m disappointed in that first 25-30 minutes. I don’t think we did ourselves justice for where we’re at. [Japan] came in with an around the corner speed kind of game and we didn’t adjust quick enough,” said captain Lucas Rumball. “But after that we found our feet, found our bearings, got into the game better. But we can’t strive to be a good nation and strive to win games and start like that. So I think it’s a reflection piece for us to have a look in the mirror and try to bounce back and correct that for next week.”

Japan was the first to score in the second half as well, but Rumball responded immediately, his try converted by Nelson to bring the score to 45-14.  

Talon McMullin scored his first career international try for Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team five minutes later, receiving a pass from Andrew Quattrin and dodging Japan’s defence to score. Nelson went three for three on conversions, with the score at 45-21.

Japan added to their tally in the 68th minute, followed up by a first ever try for Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team for Takoda McMullin as the clock ticked down, converted yet again by Nelson. Japan had the final word, scoring in extra time to bring the final score to 55-28. Having scored four tries, Canada earned a valuable bonus point.

“Fantastic people, fantastic players, and they have a big future,” Jones said of the McMullins. “Ethan Fryer, another guy who just turned 21--there’s a lot of really good youngsters. He was excellent today, so there are a lot of positives for us, but we need to make sure we figure out how we deal with our first 20 minutes of games. Japan playing in that mood would cause any team problems. Their accuracy was the key thing, and their body height they played at. Big lessons for us. I spoke at half-time to the team and I said, do we want to wait until next week to put things right, or do we want to start now? Japan may have taken their foot off the gas a little bit, but I’m really proud of the players and the way they stuck at it, I think they were excellent in their approach and attitude.”

Along with the McMullins scoring their first tries, Kaden Duguid reached a milestone moment as well, earning his first cap for Canada.

Canada’s Men’s Rugby Team will now travel to Los Angeles to take on the United States on Saturday August 31 at 6:00pm PT / 9:00pm ET. All six Pacific Nations Cup sides (Canada, United States, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji) will convene in Japan in September for the play-offs, with the semi-finals and fifth place play-off taking place on September 14 and 15 in Tokyo, and the final and third place play-off taking place on September 21 in Osaka. More information about the Pacific Nations Cup can be found here.