World Rugby's Nations Cup is formatted by having all the teams in Pool A playing the teams in Pool B, and vice-versa.
So that ends up, sometimes, having lopsided pools, and that's how the Nations Cup started.
The opening round of the Nations Cup produced not only a 4-1-1 day for Pool A, but also a lot of interesting and close games.
Tries ... you want tries? Only two of the 12 teams failed to score four tries in their game (one was the USA, by the way). Close games? Out of the six games we had two within a try, one tie, and another within two tries. Only one match could safely be called a blowout.
Canada Pulls Out Tie
With the USA winning but not getting a bonus point, the Eagles earned four points. Canada didn't win, but scored four tries, and a tie with four tries gets you three points.
Canada and Spain traded tries back and forth, with Mason Flesch going over just before halftime to make it 21-21 at the break. Yes it really was they score, we score, they score ...
In the second half Spain took the lead only for Tyler Ardron to score right after, Finally, captain and hooker Andrew Quattrin's try off a maul ruined the pattern, and Canada was now ahead 35-28 (all conversions were made in this game).
With time basically up and Spain leading 42-35, Flesch sold a dummy and scampered well into the Spanish 22. Quick ball saw Canada send it through to Ardron, who lofted a pass to reserve Brock Gallgher. He could have gone over himself but he unselfishly sent it to wing Kyle Tremblay, who was unmarked. Tremblay curved around to be sure of the conversion. Takoda McMullin slotted the kick, and we had a tie.
Pool A Keeps Winning
Samoa beat Hong Kong, scoring 10 tries to win 66-19. That was the most lopsided game of the day. The second-most lopsided match was Chile 48 Romania 31, which wasn't that one-way.
It was 33-31 with 20 minutes to go.
Tries from Sam Moli and Sione Tuipulotu in the space of three minutes turned a Zimbabwe lead of 26-19 into a 33-26 lead for Tonga. The Sea Eagles then added a penalty goal at the end to deny the Sables a close-loss bonus point.
USA beat Portugal 30-29 Late Dramatics Pull Off Win for Eagle Men
And Canada tied. The only Pool A team to lose was Uruguay, pipped 41-34 by Georgia in Montevideo in a game that saw three tries scored in the final 10 minutes.
