Canada scored a 24-7 victory over Tonga on Wednesday to maintain their record of winning a game at every World Cup but veteran captain Al Charron was carried off the field after a ferocious tackle.
Sean Fauth and Aaron Abrams scored Canada’s tries with veteran fly half Bob Ross kicking four penalties.
But the sight of the 37-year-old Charron being carried off after a sickening tackle from burly Tongan flyhalf Pierre Hola took the edge off a fine performance at the WIN Stadium.
The victory means that Canada has never left the World Cup winless, posting one victory in each of the 1987, 1995 and 1999 tournaments and two in 1991, when the Canadians reached the quarterfinals.
Winger Winston Stanley said paid tribute to the injured Charron.
”We just tried to push it to the back of our minds,” he said.
”Al was in a lot of pain and I feel bad the guy. He’s the greatest leader and the greatest guy. We just said ’10 more minutes for Al’ and we did it.”
Tongan captain Inoke Afeaki, who scored his team’s only try, blamed fatigue for the loss, which leaves his men in last place in Group D.
”I can’t complain about the way the boys performed. We played really, really well,” said Afeaki, who added that his players were tired having been thrashed 91-7 by New Zealand just five days ago.
”We played running rugby, which is our style of rugby so we’re pretty happy with that. It’s just that we missed the finesse and maybe the finesse is something that comes with being well-rested before a game.
”If we had been well-rested passes would have stuck and you would have seen more tries,” Afeaki said.
”We knew the schedule we had and we tried our best but our best wasn’t good enough this time around.”
Ross, who had kicked 409 points in 57 appearances for the Canadians going into the game, fired a fifth-minute penalty to bring up the 2 000th point of the fifth World Cup.
Hola missed the posts from 25m with a tricky wind blowing in his face but the Tongans moved ahead with a try in the 17th minute.
They gained a penalty deep in the Canadian half and kicked for the lineout. Taking clean ball, the forwards held it in a maul and drove the Canadians back for captain and second row Inoke Afeaki to dive for the score. Hola kicked the conversion.
Ross replied with another penalty and then made another from 39m four minutes before half time to put his team ahead.
The Canadians had failed to put any good handling moves together but, when they finally got it right, they stretched the lead with a brilliant try in the 51st minute.
Ross, Stanley and Quentin Fyffe all had their hands on the ball in a swift move out to the right and right winger Fauth made the overlap to go over. Ross pulled the conversion kick wide but the Canadians led 14-7.
Replacement centre Sukanaivalu Hufanga led the Tongan revival with some powerful weaving runs through the Canadian defence but he was halted three times by strong tackling before he could make a break for the line.
Canada lost their veteran captain to a ferocious tackle by Hola, leaving the oldest player in the championship lying on his back with blood dribbling from his mouth.
The game was held up for five minutes before the lock forward, who had played 76 times for Canada and captained the team for a record-tying 25 times, was carried off.
Although the crowd were stunned by the tackle, which appeared to catch Charron on the head, referee Alain Rolland told the Canadians he thought it was a fair challenge by the Tongan fly half.
Ross landed a close-range penalty five minutes from the end to give the Canadians a 10-point lead and, although the Tongan forwards managed a push over the tryline, the ball was held up by two defending players.
The Tongans finished the World Cup with 14 men with David Palu sent to the sin bin for a late tackle.
From the restart, the Canadians pushed the Tongans back and Abrams scored the team’s second try, which James Pritchard converted. — Sapa-AP