Rugby - France Canada 2

Well... it started with penalty conversion for Canada and a try by each team due to a missed reception of a high ball and a quick reaction by the opponent! Tit for tat...
Canada then held off in the first half, and could even have been at par if the Canadian kicker had not missed 3 or 4 penalty conversions which seemed very feasible, and if the Canadian players had been more careful for offside at rucks, costing them 3 penalties in the middle of the field, ie 9 points.

Finaly, France sped up in the last 10 minutes with 2 tries on the left size of the Canadian team, obviously knowing that the left wing of Canada is more known for the gel in his blonde hair than for his tackles.

Overall a good refering, except for the penalty against a Canadian player for having touched a French player with his shoulder when they both run after a ball out of touch. The Frenchman took his time to make a spectacular dive behind the advertising pannels very close to the field of play, and the referre asked the touch judge opinion.
Canada forwards demonstrated their progress, even though most of them are amateurs, like in the old days of rugby.
And France showed they could run and score. Going for the Canadian left wing only helped.
The next game for both teams is really the game they came here for:
- Canada needs to beat Japan on Tuesday September 27 to qualify automatically for the next rugby world cup (top 12 ranked in the world).
- France needs to beat New Zealand on next Saturday September 24 to avoid a top seed in the quarter final. Like England... in the last two world cups, France was eliminated by... England...!

As for England, they still need to offer a satisfactory game, to the worries of their managers. They were lucky today against a valorous team of Georgia that the referee waited 7 infringements in/close to the 22m before issuing a yellow card. I am sure Georgia would have got one after 3 infringements!
We will only know what England can really do on their last game against Scotland. Losing to Scotland could mean playing New Zealand in the quarter final...