Canada and USA draw first leg

It was honours even in the first leg of the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualification match between Canada and USA as they drew 28-28 in Ontario.

With the second leg in San Diego next week, both sides are battling for a spot to join England, France, Argentina and Oceania 2 in Pool C.

USA led 21-15 at half-time thanks to two tries from Nick Civetta in the ninth and 35th minute and one from Mike Te'o in the 40th as they responded well to an early try from DTH van der Merwe. The Canadian also added a second on 18 minutes to become their top try-scorer.

The Eagles lost both hooker James Hilterbrand and number eight Cam Dolan to the sin-bin at different points in the second period but with wing Te'o running the length of the field after intercepting a pass, they were sitting pretty at 28-18 in front with 28 minutes remaining.

Canada wouldn't roll over and despite Andrew Coe being denied a try for knocking on, replacement Aaron Carpenter crossed with three minutes remaining before Shane O'Leary added a penalty to his conversion to level things. He could not however kick a last ditch penalty to win it.

The scorers:

For Canada:
Tries: Van der Merwe 2, Carpenter
Cons: O'Leary 2
Pens: O'Leary 3

For USA:
Tries: Civetta 2, Te'o 2
Cons: MacGinty 4
Yellow Cards: Hilderbrand, Dolan

Canada: 15 Ciaran Hearn, 14 Andrew Coe, 13 DTH van der Merwe (cc), 12 Connor Braid, 11 Taylor Paris, 10 Shane O’Leary, 9 Phil Mack, 8 Tyler Ardron, 7 Matt Heaton, 6 Admir Cejvanovic, 5 Evan Olmstead, 4 Brett Beukeboom (cc), 3 Jake Ilnicki, 2 Ray Barkwill, 1 Djustice Sears-Duru
Replacements: 16 Benoit Piffero, 17 Anthony Luca, 18 Matt Tierney, 19 Kyle Baillie, 20 Aaron Carpenter, 21 Gordon McRorie, 22 Nick Blevins, 23 Dan Moor

USA: 15 Ben Cima, 14 Mike Te'o, 13 Bryce Campbell, 12 Marcel Brache, 11 Matai Leuta, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Nate Augspurger, 8 Cam Dolan, 7 John Quill, 6 Todd Clever (c), 5 Nick Civetta, 4 Ben Landry, 3 Paddy Ryan, 2 James Hilterbrand, 1 Tony Purpura
Replacements: 16 Peter Malcolm, 17 Ben Tarr, 18 Dino Waldren, 19 Matthew Jensen, 20 David Tameilau, 21 Andrew Durutalo, 22 Shaun Davies, 23 Will Magie

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
TMO: Sean Davey (England)