Canadian men defeat Brazil to finish second at Americas Rugby Trophy

MOGI DAS CRUZES, Brazil — Canada 'A' ran in five tries en route to a 31-14 win Wednesday over Brazil 'A' at the Americas Rugby Trophy.

The Canadian men lost 36-25 to Chile XV on Friday in their opening game at the three-team developmental tournament which does not carry test status. That game saw nine players sent to the sin-bin.

Chile won the competition, having already defeated Brazil 57-36. The Canadians placed second.

At the test level, Chile is ranked 21st while Canada is No. 23 and Brazil No. 27.

Wednesday's game was at Municipal Stadium Francisco Ribeiro Nogueira in Mogi das Cruzes, some 65 kilometres east of Sao Paulo.

Josiah Morra, Cooper Coats, Robbie Povey, Ross Braude and Siaki Vikilani scored tries for Canada, which led 19-14 at the half. Povey added three conversions.

Leonardo (Neymar) Silva and Matheus (Nego) Claudio scored tries for Brazil. Lucas (Ze) Tranquez kicked two conversions.

Canada led 14-0 on tries by Morra and Coats in the third and 28th minute, respectively. Brazil cut the lead to 14-7 when Silva went over at the back of a maul but Povey dove over soon after to extend the Canadian lead to 12 points. A try by Claudio, who spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin earlier in the half, made it 19-14 at the break.

Canada added two more tries in a choppy second half that saw scrum half Jason Higgins helped off the field early on after taking a knock. He was replaced by Braude.

Braude upped the lead with a brilliant solo effort in the 61st minute, slashing through the Brazil defence for a try that made it 24-14.

Helped by a string of penalties that penned Brazil deep in its own end, the Canadians laid siege to the Brazilian try-line as the clock wound down. The six-foot-three 270-pound Vikilani eventually