Canada captain Pat Riordan expressed his delight after his team's 25-20 win over Tonga in their Pool A clash in Whangarei on Wednesday.
The win was secured when left wing Phil Mackezie scored the second of his two tries in the 73rd minute and keeps their hopes alive of progressing from the pool.
"That was awesome," said Riordan.
"I'm so proud of the boys and the way they played and guts they showed. We knew it was a pretty strong wind there in the second half.
"At half-time, we knew we had achieved a couple of things and knew we had to change a couple of things but also knew that it was in our control and up to us to change it and we did.
"I hope it just shows what the Canadian boys can do," he added.
Meanwhile,Tonga skipper Finau Maka admitted that the better team won the match.
"I thought Canada came out and used the wind nicely but I thought in the second half we didn't play the way we wanted to play," said Maka.
"For us, we didn't quite play the way we wanted to play and at the end of the day they deserved the win. They played better," he added.
Tonga coach Isitola Maka said poor decision making cost them the match.
"Very, very disappointing," he said.
"The message went out to play the game in their half but we were still trying to run out of our own half. We just made some bad decisions."
Tonga's hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals are all but gone as they have now lost their opening two matches and must still play Japan on September 21 and France on October 1.
Comments
SimonSez says...
I would love to see Canada take on Scotland. Looking at how well Canada is coached, the speed of the ball they use through the back line, and the dynamic forward play, they look a better side than Scotland. The only point that counts against Canada is that their forwards are puny. Nevertheless, Canada look like the one of the teams in the so called second tier who are moving up the world rankings.
Posted 07:55 15th September 2011
IslandPower says...
on a side note does that photo of Moa and Macknezie kinda look wrong somehow? You wouldnt want it as a poster trying to promote the sport would you?
Posted 06:43 15th September 2011
IslandPower says...
Yes coach poor decision making might of cost your team the game, starting with your own decisions making 11 changes and 4 positional switches. Moa sucked at first five the teams much better with kurt morath there. A lot of his *long* passes found dirt or put the receivers under pressure. I don't know why you choose a crucial world cup match to *experiment* or what ever you call it with combinations.
I suppose there is a reason why his brother is now playing in the 2nd division in France? The way he fell off tackles and knocked the ball on didnt look pretty especially comming from the captain. He looked worse than John Smit at times. Hopefully this is just an abberation, Tonga's world cup is pretty much over, the only good that can come from this is hoping they learnt something from the experiance.And blood some younger players. They definately not going to get the 2 wins automatic qualification, but lucky for them they will only have to contend with niue, png and the cook island to requalify for the next world cup,
Posted 06:30 15th September 2011