Canada falls to visiting Spain in men’s rugby test

OTTAWA — The result was disappointing, but the experience will go a long way for Canada’s senior men’s 15s rugby squad following a 57-34 loss to Spain on Sunday.

Ranked 15th in the world, Spain was considered the favourite coming in, but for Canada’s young squad this was an opportunity to see what’s needed to win on the international pitch.

“There’s a lot of good in what we did,” said Canada head coach Kingsley Jones. “Our breakdown work was really good, there was some good performances from one or two individuals and our lineup was excellent until we lost (players) to maybe a little fatigue, but we certainly had tempo in the area we wanted.”

Canada trailed 4src-13 after the first half, but regrouped and came out with a strong second half outscoring its opponents 21-17.

Spain picked up right where it left off scoring in the opening minutes of the second half, but Canada replied as captain Lucas Rumball punched his way in to make it 45-2src.

“We’ve got to learn to start quicker,” said Rumball after the game. “It’s something we’ve done in the past as well, is wait until the game is out of hand and we’ve dug ourselves a hole