HAMILTON — Canada heads into the return leg of its Rugby World Cup qualifier with the U.S. on even terms but rueing missed opportunities after a wild and woolly 28-28 tie Saturday.
Canada squandered a first-half lead and needed to reel off 10 late points just to secure the tie on a warm but windy day before 13,187 at Tim Hortons Field. A 70th-minute Aaron Carpenter try and 78th-minute Shane O'Leary penalty pulled the Canadians even going into the finale of the aggregate points series July 1 in San Diego.
Both teams had chances to pull ahead in the dying minutes.
American fly half A.J. MacGinty was wide on a dropped goal in the final minute before O'Leary missed a long-range penalty to leave the score knotted.
"Hats off to the U.S.A., they played a good game. But ultimately I don't think they deserved 28 points," said downcast Canadian co-captain DTH van der Merwe. "We gifted them at least half of those points."
Coach Mark Anscombe liked the Canadian comeback but had plenty of other concerns.
"We left a lot of tries out there and we gave them a few," he said. "If we're going to do better next week, we've got to be a little bit more clinical than what we were today."
The 23rd-ranked Canadians ended their five-game losing streak at the hands of the 17th-ranked Americans. But now they must win on the road.
And neither team will trigger much concern among World Cup-bound teams from Saturday's performance.
Van der Merwe did his bit, however.
The elusive back scored his 24th and 25th tries for Canada, breaking Winston Stanley's 14-year-old national record of 24. Stanley scored his two dozen in 66 games, compared to 44 for van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe was a threat every time he touched the ball, juking and jiving past tacklers.
O'Leary kicked three penalties and added two conversions.
Nick Civetta and Mike Te'o each scored two tries for the Americans, who twice went down a man in the second half for yellow cards. MacGinty kicked four conversions.
"There's not a lot between the two sides, as you can see," said U.S. coach John Mitchell. "Generally it's going to come down to who can hold their nerve.
"We lived off little possession today. We also didn't command enough field position, but we found other ways to keep in the game which was pleasing."
Canada got off to a roaring start and led 7-0 and 15-7, only to see the Americans pull ahead 21-15 with two tries late in the half. While the Canadians managed to come at the U.S. in waves, they could not convert the chances.
The Americans, meanwhile, made the most of any openings created by Canadian mistakes. And there were a few.
A key moment came early in the second half with Canada trailing 21-18 but up a man with an American in the sin-bin. The Canadians were laying siege on the U.S. goal-line after an American knock-on, only to see Te'o intercept an O'Leary pass and race 80 metres for a try and a 28-18 lead.
The Canadian bad luck continued. Andrew Coe scored in the 62nd minute but the try was disallowed on video review after it was ruled he lost possession as he flew through the air in the process of touching the ball down.
Both teams were missing players with Jeff Hassler, Matt Evans, Conor Trainor and Lucas Rumball out injured for Canada. The Eagles were without Samu Manoa, Titi Lamositele, Greg Peterson, Zack Test and Blaine Scully among others.
The U.S. starting 15 had a combined cap count of just 260, with 74 of those coming from captain Todd Clever, who is retiring from international play after this series. Nine of the 15 had 10 caps or less.
The Canadian starting 15 had a combined 350 caps with only four having single-digit caps.
The Canada-U.S. series winner slots into Pool C at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, along with No. 2 England, No. 8 France, No. 9 Argentina and Oceania 2.
The playoff loser has another chance to qualify via a two-game playoff with No. 18 Uruguay, the lone survivor left in South American qualifying. That winner slots into Pool D as Americas 2 with No. 4 Australia, No. 7 Wales, No. 12 Georgia and Oceania 1.
The loser of the Uruguay series has one more chance, via a world repechage.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
