South Africa’s and Canada’s players acknowledge the crowd after the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup Pool B match between South Africa and Canada at the Kobe Misaki Stadium in Kobe on October 8, 2019. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
Watch: Canada lock apologises to Boks for dangerous play [video]
The sirit of rugby prevailed after the Springboks 66-7 thrashing of Canada with lock, Josh Larsen doing the most Canadian thing to do.
South Africa’s and Canada’s players acknowledge the crowd after the Japan 2019 Rugby World Cup Pool B match between South Africa and Canada at the Kobe Misaki Stadium in Kobe on October 8, 2019. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)
Canadians are known for being polite amongst other things – with rugby not ranking high on the list – and another display of their good manners was observed in Kobe, Japan on Tuesday.
The North Americans took on one of the pre-tournament favourites at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, South Africa, and the result went according to what was expected, as they were handed a thorough beat down – coming out at the wrong end of a 66-7 scoreline.
Spirit of rugby prevails
In the heat of the game, Canada’s highly-unlikely chances of making it a contest were thrown out the window by a brainfart from one of their second rowers, Josh Larsen, who earned a straight red card after a brutal shoulder charge on Bok prop Thomas du Toit.
However, the big lock – who only came on in the 12th minute to replace the injured Kyle Baille – saw the error of his ways and went into the Springboks change room to apologise to Du Toit and the rest of his teammates for his unsporting tackle.
Larsen’s apology was welcome, with Bok skipper Siya Kolisi offering him a beer in what was a true display of the spirit of the game.
Watch: Josh Larsen apologises to Thomas du Toit
Canada’s un-Canadian Rugby World Cup record
While Canada are polite off the field, it looks as if their manners do not make it past the whitewash on game day.
The very first Rugby World Cup encounter between them and South Africa, back in 1995, descended into the infamous “Battle of Boet Erasmus”, where players from either side were sent off after a huge brawl.
With his 36th minute red card, Larsen became the fourth Canadian to be sent off during a World Cup match, a record for any country in the tournament. Samoa and Tonga are directly behind with three red cards apiece.
Canada played more than half of the match with 14-men which, strangely enough, seemed to inspire them into a better performance as it was with the one-man deficit that they found their way into the scoreboard.
Captain, Tyler Ardron said the disadvantage helped inspire them to put up a fight in the second half.
“It’s never helpful to get a red card, but we pulled together. We would rather have had 15 out there, but we make a few mistakes in that first 25 to 30 minutes, but we pulled it together in the end.”
Tyler Ardron
