‘Ugly win’ over U.S. gains Rugby World Cup berth

Canadian team outplayed for long stretches

TORONTO Kieran Crowley wanted a better performance from Canada in Saturday’s crucial Rugby World Cup qualifier against the United States.

The Canadian head coach didn’t get it, but his team will still be heading to England in two years’ time.

James Pritchard scored eight points as a sluggish Canada clinched a spot in the 2015 Rugby World Cup with a hard-fought 13-11 victory over the U.S.

“It was ugly,” Crowley said bluntly. “But it was a win.”

Jason Marshall also had a try for the Canadians, who took the two-match totalpoints qualifying series 40-20 after last weekend’s 27-9 victory in Charleston, S.C.

Despite the lopsided score in the first leg, Crowley wasn’t happy with Canada’s showing and said in the lead-up to Saturday’s match at BMO Field that he expected more.

But an American team that had its pride damaged in a disappointing home loss seven days earlier came out strong and outplayed Canada for long stretches, especially in the first half.

Pritchard agreed with Crowley’s assessment of Canada’s outing.

“We came out here wanting to make a statement showing how far we’ve come with Canadian rugby,” said Pritchard, the country’s all-time leading scorer. “Today we got a win, we did our job, we qualified for the World Cup, but it was anything but pretty.

“It’s not too often we get to play these big games at a stadium like this. We’d been gearing it up for it so much this week that I think the occasion might have got to a few of us.”

Takudzwa Ngwenya had the only try for the Americans, while Chris Wyles added six points on two penalty kicks. The U.S. still has two cracks at making the tournament, including a two-match series with Uruguay.

“Our backs were against the wall. We knew we had to come out and prove something to ourselves, to prove that we could play the game and we did,” American head coach Mike Tolkin said. “We played with guts, we played with determination.”

“It’s always a big battle against (the U.S.),” Canadian captain Aaron Carpenter said. “We know what they’re going to bring and they brought it today. I thought they were a little bit light last week in South Carolina.

The Canadians, who are ranked 14th in the world by the International Rugby Board, join 12 countries that have already qualified automatically for the World Cup in 2015 and will slot into Pool D alongside France, Ireland, Italy and another European qualifier.