Manu Samoa break Canadian hearts

Samoa scored a last-second try to hand Canada a crushing 21-20 defeat in the Pacific Nations Cup yesterday.

The win secures Manu Samoa’s place in the final of the tournament against Fiji next Tuesday.

Canada had seemed destined for victory after Phil Mackenzie’s slashing run for a try in the 75th minute lifted the home side to a 20-16 lead.

But after Canada stole a Samoan lineout on the Canadian goalline with the clock running down, two Canadians collided and the ball spilled loose, only for Samoa’s prop, Sakaria Taulafo to dive on it for the winning try.

Samoa, the highest-ranked team in the tournament at No. 9, will meet No. 10 Fiji in Tuesday’s final in Burnaby, B.C. Mackenzie, with an assist from teammate Connor Trainor, put Canada ahead after he got to a long cross-field kick from Nathan Hirayama that landed just outside Samoa’s 22-metre line and beat a string of defenders to the goalline. James Pritchard’s conversion added to the lead.

Until then, it had looked like Michael Stanley’s long-range kicking would lift Samoa to a comeback win.

The Samoans rallied from 13-3 down at halftime with Stanley tying the game and then moving the Pacific Islanders into the lead with a pair of 45-metre-plus kicks on or near the halfway line.

Canada dominated the early going but blew several chances to increase its first-half lead. Pritchard, Canada’s all-time points scorer, also missed two second-half penalty kicks.

Canada, ranked 18th in the world, has now lost all five previous meetings with Samoa.

The Canadians lost 20-6 to Japan and 28-18 to Tonga earlier in the competition. Samoa beat the U.S. 21-16 and tied Fiji 30-30.

Canada, despite losing captain Tyler Ardron to injury in the fourth minute, came out firing on all cylinders Wednesday and led 13-0 after 13 minutes.

Nick Blevins also scored a try for Canada. Pritchard kicked two penalties and two conversions.

His first penalty, in the third minute lifted his international total to 600 points, the 20th player in world rugby to reach that milestone. Pritchard also took over as captain after Ardron’s exit.

Anthony Perenise also scored a try for Samoa. Stanley kicked three penalties and a conversion.

In earlier action at BMO Field on a day of torrid temperatures, Tonga beat the U.S. 33-19 and Fiji, down two men at the end, hung on to defeat Japan 27-22.

The Canada-Samoa game was played to an unwanted soundtrack from the nearby Edgefest 2 concert headlined by Incubus.

Facing a compressed schedule, Canadian coach Kieran Crowley dug deep into his roster and made 12 changes from the team that lost to Tonga last Friday.

Despite a small crowd, the Canadians looked ready. They left the field as a phalanx after the pre-game warmup.

The Canadians, standing together on the halfway line, then watched in as the Samoans laid down their pre-game challenge with the Siva Tau, their version of the Haka.

There was plenty of action early.

An early Canadian try by Mackenzie was called off due a forward pass but the home side crossed over in the seventh minute when Blevins, following a Trainor run, coralled the ball after it bounced off his leg over the goalline. Pritchard converted.

Samoa’s Paul Perez was sinbinned for a high tackle and Pritchard made the Pacific Islanders pay with the penalty for a 13-0 lead.

Samoa lost scrum half Pele Cowley to an arm injury in the 16th minute.

Stanley finally put Samoa on the scoreboard in the 24th minute with a penalty that cut the lead to 13-3. Canada threatened late in the half after stealing a Samoan lineout but fly half Nathan Hirayama dropped the ball on the ensuing attack.

Another late Canadian attack ended in a turnover for a 13-3 Canada lead in a first half that had no shortage of niggle between the two sides.

Samoa scored early in the second half, with six-foot 260-pound prop Perenise bulling his way over in the 44th minute after a big hit dislodged the ball from a Canadian five metres off his own line. Stanley’s kick made it 13-10.

Pritchard missed a long-range penalty in the 54th minute. Then Hirayama was wide on an attempted dropped goal. Stanley did not miss in the 64th, hitting a penalty kick from just inside the halfway line just over the posts to tie the game at 13-13.

He did it again two minutes later, this time from right on the halfway line for a 16-13 Samoa lead. Pritchard’s penalty attempt was wide in the 73rd minute.

Crowley’s squad has won two of its last 12 test matches dating back to November 2013. The Canadian men, ranked 18th in the world, have only beaten No. 21 Namibia and No. 29 Portugal during that stretch.

They lost to No. 9 Samoa (twice), No. 11 Scotland, No. 12 Tonga, No. 13 Japan (twice), No. 14 Georgia, No. 16 U.S., and No. 17 Romania (twice). The record worsens if you add non-test losses to the New Zealand Maori and an English second-division all-star team.

Canada entered the day as the only team out of contention for Monday’s final. They will play a placement match.