BURNABY, B.C. — Canada started impressively and finished strong at its Pacific Nations Cup rugby match against Tonga. It was the in between that captain Tyler Ardron wants to see improve.
Sonatang Takalua scored two tries as Tonga rallied to earn a 28-18 second-round victory over Canada on Friday at the tournament.
Aaron Carpenter had two tries as the Canadians jumped out to a 15-3 lead just over 20 minutes into the game. But Tonga took over soon after and Canada was on its heels up until the final minutes when the home side made a push at the goal-line.
"We just need to put that whole 80 minutes together," said Ardron. "The start and the finish are our strong parts. It's just that middle. If we can fix that we should be good."
Canada is winless after two games, having lost its opener to No. 12 Japan, 20-16. Canada gave away 15 penalties in that game and coach Kieran Crowley was hoping to see his team play smarter against Tonga.
"There was improvement in a lot of areas, but there's still lot of areas ... I thought the first 15 or so minutes we played really well," said Crowley. "After that our set pieces didn't go well. Then we just turned over too many balls. We gave a few penalties away and that allowed them to kick and get their set pieces going and put the pressure on us. We weren't smart on that."
It won't get any easier for Canada with undefeated Samoa up next on Wednesday.
"We just have to regroup and look at the footage and hopefully learn from it," said Crowley. "It's a pretty big challenge against Samoa."
It was No. 13 Tonga's first win at this PNC after losing their opener, 30-22 to No. 10 Fiji.
In soggy conditions Canada jumped out to an early lead. It was just over two minutes in when Carpenter plunged in for a try to make it 5-0. Scrum half Gordon McRorie booted the convert for a 7-0 lead.
Canada kept up the pressure with possession and at 11 minutes McRorie booted a penalty to push the advantage 10-0.
After Tonga's Kurt Morath missed a penalty with a wide kick, he got another chance minutes later and made no mistake to get Tonga on the board 10-3 at 19 minutes.
Carpenter ignited the wet crowd again at 23 minutes when he made a nice run to score his second try and make it 15-3.
Soon after Canadian fly half Liam Underwood earned a yellow card at 34 minutes for penalty violations, putting Canada down a man. Tonga sustained scrum pressure long enough for Takalua to find an opening and score a try. That closed the gap to 15-10 after Morath made the convert.
Tonga picked up where it left off early in the second half as Otulea Katoa dived in the corner for a try and Morath kicked another convert as Tonga pulled ahead. Morath pushed it to 20-15 with a penalty.
After McRorie and Morath exchanged penalties, Tonga's Steve Mafi made a dash down the left side and unloaded the ball to Takalua for a try to make it 28-18.
After Samoa, Canada wraps up the tournament in Burnaby with three playoff fixtures on Aug. 3. Samoa and Fiji are tied atop the table after drawing 30-30 in Friday's other game.
Ardron says Canada needs to work on its set pieces if it hopes to turn it around against Samoa.
"We're getting better every week without a doubt, but we had our issues (with scrums)," said Ardron. "We can't hide it and hopefully we can do our review and turn those around."
Notes: The Tongans started the match with their customary war dance — the Sipi Tau.
