Live Stream; Canada vs New Zealand Maori

Just to let you know, the IRB are streaming Canadas game against NZ Maori.

http://www.irb.com/live/video.html

The game has just now begun. Thats my Sunday night sorted! Mods, the IRB have the rights so this is not in violation of any copyright  

Jeff Hassler (of the Ospreys) has just scored the opening try after a scrum against the head. Lovely hands. Anyone else watching?

22000 fans here watching. Piri Weepu a late withdrawal before KO for the MABs. Canada off to a flyer with all the territory and possession but a couple of stupid mistakes see them defending a 5m scrum and Zac Guildford duly dots the ball down in the corner a few phases later. Conversion missed, 5-5.

Mental game. Both teams running from everywhere for 80 minutes. Can think of maybe two kicks from hand in open play! Canada showed great heart, but if you're gonna run every ball and play really fast and loose you've got to have the handling ability to back it up. Too many handling mistakes and obviously the Maori ABs love a fast, unstructured game! They've just hung in, capitalised on turnover ball and taken their chances- and Canada running from deep every time has just played right into their hands. Canada have just been naive, just not made them work hard for their scores and thats disappointing. Robbie Robinson at 15 was the best player on the pitch- scored one, set-up two and nailed a few difficult conversions. Zac Guildford got the official MoTM but I was more impressed with Robinson.

Canada 15-40 New Zealand Maori FT

But it's not all negative; a record crowd for a game in Canada (22566 fans) and a massively entertaining game- there will be plenty of people there at their first rugby match that will be disappointed with Canada losing, but very entertained and come away with a very positive impression of the sport. As they say, it was a great advert for rugby union.

Canada now head to Europe for test matches against Georgia, Romania and Portugal.

"Canada 15-40 New Zealand Maori FT

But it's not all negative;"

Love it...

Unless robbie Robinson managed to set up a try with his feet in touch I'm afraid he's not worthy of a MoM award.

Taylorman wrote:"Canada 15-40 New Zealand Maori FT

But it's not all negative;"

Love it...

Weeellll T'man... I see it like this. This wasn't the game that matters for Canada. Those would be the three test matches in Europe with IRB ranking points at stake. But as well as being far from their domestic audience those are fairly unglamorous fixtures, at least compared to the All Blacks. Okay, they didn't get the All Blacks over but from a marketing point of view they got the next best thing; a Maori side with several All Blacks in their midst and the Maoris did bring the razzle-dazzle.

It was an exhibition game and played very much in that spirit. The attacking intent on display would put the increasingly disappointing Barbarians games we see against test sides to shame. They went out to entertain as much as they went out to win, because the biggest stakes were off the field. This was a massive opportunity for them to put the sport of rugby union itself in the spotlight in Canada; a record crowd, a live broadcast at a time suitable for Canadian sports fans and if both sides put on a display of entertaining attacking rugby all the better, all the more likely that they will attract new fans and increase grassroots participation off the back of it. I would say that Rugby Canada will deem this game a success in many ways.

Now Kieran Crowleys team will head over to Europe and I'm sure they'll tighten up and look to play more territory and not be going for the high-risk plays deep in their own half every second phase. This is preparation for the 2015 RWC and they'll be targeting some wins.

22000 to a Maori game is very impressive. The Candians really do love their rugby.

There is a huge market there in North America that we really should tapping into.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:There is a huge market there in North America that we really should hopefully Rugby Canada can continue tapping into.