05-06-2019, 12:44 AM
BURNABY, B.C. -- Japan rugby coach Eddie Jones might want to bottle whatever he told his team at halftime on Saturday night. Down 25-9 at the break, Japan stormed out of the gate and outscored Canada 25-0 over the final 40 minutes to stun the hosts 34-25 in the first game of the Pacific Nations Cup tournament for both countries. Jones is back coaching after suffering a stroke in October, but that didnt stop him from letting loose on his players after a disappointing first half. "Ill tell you what, it wasnt good for my blood pressure," said the 54-year-old. "We thought we were fitter than them. We thought if we could just hang in there ... we were just like a boxer on the ropes hanging on there. And if you get a chance to throw a jab, you throw it, and thats what we were able to do. "It takes a bit of courage to do that, so Im really pleased with that from the boys." Japan ran ragged in the second half, busting through the line for a pair of tries that left Canadian head coach Kieran Crowley shaking his head. "We really played well in that first half. We put pressure on them, we scored a couple really good tries," he said. "Second half, we had a couple bad defensive errors from set plays, which you cant afford to do. They were pretty soft tries, really. "Japan just took it to us and they deserved to win with that second-half performance." Yoshikazu Fujita, Yu Tamura and Hendrik Tui had the tries for the visitors, who won their eighth straight overall, while Ayumu Goromaru kicked five penalties and added two converts. John Moonlight, Ciaran Hearn and Taylor Paris had the tries for Canada, while James Pritchard added two penalties and two converts. Japan started to claw its way back after halftime with a try in the 42nd minute as Fujita dove over the line, and after Goromaru missed the conversion, the score stood at 25-14. Goromaru then kicked his fourth penalty of the night in the 56th minute to make it 25-17 before Tamura broke through the Canadian midfield untouched in the 63rd, with Goromanus conversion cutting the deficit to just one. Clearly rattled, Canada could barely hold onto the ball and Tui completed the comeback by again busting through the line to make it 31-25 after Goromarus conversion. Goromaru added to his point total by booting another penalty on the last kick of the game for the 34-25 final. "We always knew wed have to cope with the physical onslaught of Canada at home for the first 40," said Jones. "If we wouldnt have given away that try away (before) halftime we would have been pretty happy, but 25-9 at halftime, youre battling to stay in the game." Despite watching his team get bossed around in the second half, Tyler Ardron -- a 22-year-old from Lakefield, Ont., who plays for Ospreys in Wales and captained Canada for the first time -- saw some positives. "Tons of things to work on still," said Ardron, who made just his 14th appearance for the national team. "But we executed a lot things that we wanted to and I think if you look at that first half, a lot of things went our way and in the second half a couple bounces maybe went their way." The six-team Pacific Nations Cup tournament also includes Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and the United States. Canada will play world No. 10 Scotland at Torontos BMO Field next Saturday before travelling to Sacramento, Calif., to face the U.S. on June 21 in another Pacific Nations Cup match. The tournament consists of two groups of three teams, with each country taking on the other two in its conference. The top teams from each meet in Novembers final. Before his teams dominating second half, the turning point appeared to come in the 34th minute when Japans Shota Horie was sent to the sin bin for a foul, leaving his team down a man. Pritchard made the ensuing penalty from close range and Canada opened the floodgates with two impressive tries to close out the half. Moonlight finished off a good move for a try in the 37th minute before Paris broke through the Japanese line moments later, with Pritchard converting both for a 25-9 lead. "(We) definitely didnt think it was over," said Ardron. "I think we felt that if we played our game over the next 40 minutes we would be comfortable, but that clearly wasnt the case. "Credit to Japan -- they came out and played their game and we didnt turn it around." Japan, ranked No. 12 in the world, has been a pain for 15th-ranked Canada over the last several years. The Japanese tied Canada at the last two Rugby World Cups, with the 23-23 draw in 2011 helping to push the Canadians to fourth in their pool to miss out on automatic qualification for the 2015 tournament. Japan then beat Canada 16-13 in last years Pacific Nations Cup, a result that handed the championship trophy to Fiji. Crowley said earlier in the week that a win over Japan on home soil would help propel his side up the International Rugby Boards rankings and his players started brightly in front of a partisan crowd at Swangard Stadium. Canada had sustained pressure early in the match, with Hearn going over the line for the opening try in the seventh minute, but Pritchard missed the conversion for a 5-0 lead. Goromaru got Japan on the board with a penalty kick in the 12th minute, and he connected again three minutes later to give his team a 6-5 advantage. Pritchard then added a penalty in the 18th minute to restore the Canadian lead at 8-6, but Goromaru kicked his third penalty of the half in the 29th to make it 9-8 Japan. "Rugbys on a bit of a high at the moment in Canada," said Crowley. "Weve just got to get some of these tight games across the line. Japan have had our number a little bit the last few times weve played them, which is unfortunate." Notes: Scotland beat the U.S. 24-6 on Saturday night in Houston. ... Saturday marked the first time Canadas mens team wore its new uniforms designed by Under Armour. ... Japan meets the U.S. in Carson, Calif., next weekend. ... Attendance was 6,382. Terrell Owens Jersey . Giants manager Bruce Bochy told The Associated Press of the decision before NL West-leading San Francisco opened a 10-game homestand Monday night with the first of three games against second-place Arizona. Custom Dallas Cowboys Jerseys . Scotlands Greg Laidlaw made one of two penalty kicks and all three conversions, and Stuart Hogg added a try in the second half. "The most important thing to come out of the game is that we did not get scored against," Laidlaw said. http://www.footballcowboysshop.us/cowboy...authentic/. The Tournament of Champions, which starts Friday, is his first event since a freak accident in Shanghai two months ago. Snedeker was on a Segway scooter during a corporate outing at Sheshan International when he took a tumble and injured his left knee. Mike White Cowboys Jersey . After seven wins in a row, they have to do it one more time to get into the playoffs. Dallas Cowboys Jerseys . Watching them over the past year - and in some cases, two years - has given us a starting point for this seasons Craigs List.Even though winning and losing is not the end all in NHL pre-season games, how you play is. The Winnipeg Jets finished an eight-game exhibition schedule with a 5-0 loss to Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins in a game played in Saskatoon on Friday. The Jets finish with a 1-4-3 record and from players to coaches, all know there is work to be done in preparation for Tuesdays season opener in Edmonton (TSN 1290). There are also some roster decisions to be made as the Jets currently have 26 players remaining – 15 forwards, nine defencemen, and two goaltenders. The Jets did get a scare late in the game as Dustin Byfuglien went down awkwardly in his own zone, stayed down for a bit and then skated off very much favouring his left leg. Post game, head coach Claude Noel said Byfuglien was fine. The Jets also played without defenceman Zach Bogosian after he left last weeks game in Edmonton. Bogosian is expected to be ready for the opener. Back to the 1-4-3 record. Individuals have great pre-seasons and bad starts to the year, so do teams, and vice versa. Great pre-seasons do not mean great starts, so dont read too much into the record. However, back to the "there is work to be done" that we heard after the loss. Defending is still the biggest concern for Noel. In the 5-0 loss there were missed assignments, incorrect reads and any other terms coaches use. The Jets HAVE to cut down the goals against and maybe giving up five in the final game will make it easier for the coaches to hammer that point home. They gave up 144 last year. Only three teams in the East and two in the West gave up more. It starts with cutting down the oppositions quality chances. It is not just a case of saying the goaltending has to be better. You defend as a team, and being a solid defensive team is hard work. Its making a commitment to the system game in, game out. In some of the pre-season games we saw it. Now its just a matter of doing it consistently, which is easier said than done. The power play had its moments in the eight games but will need to be better than it was last season. Power play numbers in pre-season are what they are. It is not practiced much, from game to game never the same five-man unit, and its pretty much ad lib. The biggest positive from the pre-season was the penalty kill. Last year the Jets became a more aggressive team on the PK and in the last 31 games did not give up a power play goal against in 23 of them. In the eight pre-season games they killed 36 of 38. Key now is to continue with that confidence going into the regular season. And like defending, PK is following the system and hard work. Individually Jacob Trouba, Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry are just three of the youngsters that stood out. All three are in different situations now, Morrissey back in junior and captain of the Prince Albert Raiders, Lowry in St. Johns (only one pre-season game because of injury), while Trouba appears to have done enough to be on the opening day roster. In goal Ondrej Pavelec will carry the load but after "wanting to play all the games" in previous years says he will no longer answer questions about how busy he wants to be. He will leave that up to the coach to decide and do what is best for the team to accomplish its goal of being in the post season. "That is my goal, do whatever I can to get us into the playoffs," said Pavelec. Al Montoya will see more action than he did in last years shortened season where he only got into seven games, starting only four. What will the D pairings be? We have seen Byfuglien and Grant Clitsome together and if that is the case can Clitsome play the big minutes Byfugien does? He showed last year he could as he was over 20 minutes in each of the last eight games and over 24 minutes seven times in the back half of the season. Injuries split Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom last season. Enstrom went 2-11-13 in the first 10 games and was key in the Jets scoring nine power play goals in the first nine games. Early in game 13 Enstrom was injured and missed the next 19. Bogosian will round out the top four with Mark Stuart and Trouba at five/six. Those two were paired together in the back to back games against Boston. Trouba was tested with big minutes in the pre-season and the coaches loved the response. That leaves Paul Postma, Adam Pardy and Zach Redmond for one final spot if the decision is to go with 14 forwards and seven D. Redmond had the horrific injury last year and needs to play, plus is on a two-way contract so will probably end up with the IceCaps. Up front Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler will again be asked to carry the offensive load. Ladd had a great season leading the team in scoring (18-28-46), Wheeler lead the teamm in goals (19 – prorated over 82 games and you get 32 which would have been a career high).dddddddddddd With the additions of Devin Setoguchi and Michael Frolik the Jets hope the added offensive pop will take some of the load off the big line. In too many games last year if the big line didnt score, the Jets didnt win. But no second unit has been set. Evander Kane, who has led this team in total goals since the move to Winnipeg (47), leads the NHL in pre-season shots on goal while logging big minutes. Hitting the net with more regularity is still something the coaches would like to see from the 22-year-old. In the middle will it be Olli Jokinen or Mark Scheifele? The game-to-game rotation tells you neither has jumped up and grabbed the spot. Which of the newcomers will be on the right side? That still needs to be determined. In the last two games James Wright saw time in the top nine, with Jim Slater, Eric Tangradi, and Chris Thorburn starting the last two games together. Slater coming off a season shortened by injury, after scoring a career high 13 goals in the 2011-12 campaign. If that is the starting 12, that leaves Anthony Peluso, Patrice Cormier and Matt Halischuk for the final two forward spots, again if the plan is to go with 14. Halischuk has experience, is quick and has played for Nashville and New Jersey, two very good defensive teams, thus will stay. Cormier has been knocking on the door the past few seasons and can play centre or left wing, while Peluso has only five NHL games under his belt after suffering a hand injury last year. Will the Jets being in the tougher Western Conference benefit him when it comes to the final decision? Which brings us to the move to the West. How will the Jets adapt? The West is more physical, tighter checking, features teams with big centremen (Joe Thornton 64, 220, Ryan Getzlaf 64, 220, Anze Kopitar 63, 225, Mikko Koivu 63, 217), the champion Blackhawks, St. Louis always one of the toughest teams to play against, etc. The NHLs three best home teams last season came from the West. San Jose lost twice in regulation, Chicago three and Los Angeles four. The Jets at 13-10-1 HAVE to be better at MTS Centre. Especially with eight of nine at home after the opener in Edmonton. The move to the West makes for a better schedule. Much easier to fly to Chicago for a single, than to Carolina or Florida as was the case when they played in the Southeast Division. Total miles does not really tell the story. Jets will travel over 46,000 miles this season, compared to 44,600 in the 2011-12 season. Difference is in the Southeast the Jets would go on six- and seven-game road trips where now the home/road will balance out a lot better. If you check the month-to-month schedule you will notice the balance. This franchise was last in the playoffs in the spring of 2007. Is this the year? Great question, discuss among yourselves. With four divisions the top three from each get in, with wild cards spots up for grabs. Jets will play 10 back-to-backs (a good number), 10 afternoon games and one morning game (Friday Nov. 29 in Philadelphia). TSN Jets will feature 63 Jets games, including the home opener against Los Angeles on October 4 and barring a Stanley Cup meeting, Teemu Selannes final game in Winnipeg two days later, as he will retire at the end of the season to take up golf. Okay, maybe not after watching his "Im returning for one more year video." Jets will be featured on five TSN national telecasts and of course all games can be heard on TSN 1290. The team will spend the weekend in Banff, Alberta doing some team building before heading into Edmonton Monday. Sunday and Monday will include on-ice sessions to work on all aspects of the game. Yes, the pre-season slate is wiped clean and everyone starts even. But this team knows 27 goals against in the pre-season is too many. The 1-4-3 record will soon be forgotten, especially with a good start to the season. Players have talked about starting games better, more urgency to their games at the start of the season because a win in October is as important as a win in April. And to that end, remember last year when a losing streak put them in a position where they could not afford a loss down the stretch. They also want to and need to night in and night out be a tougher team to play against. They are a better team than last season, because players like Kane and Bogosian have another year of experience, and with players they added during the off-season. And starting Tuesday all the questions surrounding this team will start to be answered. The two biggest being "how will they handle the move to the West?", and "can they defend better and cut down the goals against?". Cheap Celtics Jerseys Wholesale Nets Jerseys Cheap Knicks Jerseys Cheap Stitched 76ers Jerseys Raptors Jerseys China Cheap Bulls Jerseys Wholesale Cavaliers Jerseys Pistons Jerseys China Pacers Jerseys China Cheap Bucks Jerseys Online Wholesale Hawks Jerseys Cheap Hornets Jerseys Wholesale Heat Jerseys Cheap Magic Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Wizards Jerseys Nuggets Jerseys China Timberwolves Jerseys China Cheap Thunder Jerseys Authentic Wholesale Blazers Jerseys Wholesale Jazz Jerseys Cheap Warriors Jerseys For Sale Cheap Clippers Jerseys Lakers Jerseys China Wholesale Suns Jerseys Cheap Kings Jerseys Authentic Cheap Mavericks Jerseys Rockets Jerseys China Cheap Grizzlies Jerseys Wholesale Pelicans Jerseys Spurs Jerseys China ' ' '