![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nMason Flesch and Morgan Di Nardo scored Canada\u2019s tries. Robbie Povey kicked four penalties and one conversion and Peter Nelson added a penalty.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Both teams have qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n
Portugal pulled ahead 23-16 early in the second half with Vasconcelos touching down in the corner after a Canadian turnover at the breakdown. Canada cut the lead to 23-21 in the 52nd minute, after a string of Portugal penalties near its try-line, with Di Nardo scoring on debut.<\/p>\n
After a penalty miss, Vareiro was on target again in the 57th minute to up the lead to 26-21. Povey answered with a kick off his own in the 60th to reduce the deficit to 26-24.<\/p>\n
A converted Marta try survived a 64th-minute video review for possible obstruction as Portugal extended its lead to 33-24.<\/p>\n
After Povey missed a 67th-minute penalty from distance, Nelson cut the lead to 33-27 with a penalty after Portugal had a man sent to the sin bin, paying the price for a string of penalties.<\/p>\n
The teams traded first-half penalties with Vareiro converting kicks in the eighth, 18th and 52nd minute and Povey successful in the 11th and 16th, with a long-range effort.<\/p>\n
Canada took advantage of another Portugal penalty to kick for the corner and Flesch crashed over from the ensuing lineout for a converted try and 13-9 lead in the 30th minute. Povey\u2019s penalty kick upped the margin to 16-9 before Martins scored at the back of a maul after Canada was penalized for a high tackle to tie the game at 16-16 at the break.<\/p>\n
The Canadians did not help their cause with errant lineouts and some inaccurate kicking.<\/p>\n
It marked Canada\u2019s first meeting with Portugal since November 2021 in Lisbon when the Portuguese scored a late try to prevail 20-17 for their first-ever win over the Canadians. Canada had won all four previous meetings.<\/p>\n
The Canadian men close out the year with a 1-8-0 record and have lost six straight, all against higher-ranked teams, since a 34-20 win over the 16th-ranked U.S. Eagles in August in Pacific Nations Cup play.<\/p>\n
The Canadian starting 15 went into the match with 245 combined caps, with 64 of those belonging to captain Lucas Rumball. The eight-man bench had a combined 121 caps.<\/p>\n
Scrum half James Naylor, who plays for England\u2019s Rotherham Titans, made his Canada debut off the bench in the second half.<\/p>\n
Portugal, coached by former All Black Simon Mannix, ran in nine tries in defeating No. 23 Hong Kong 58-12 and lost 26-8 to No. 15 Uruguay in its previous November internationals.<\/p>\n
In July, an injury-depleted Portugal was hammered 106-7 by No. 4 Ireland, which set records for points, tries (16) and margin of victory.<\/p>\n
Portugal impressed at the 2023 World Cup, edging Fiji 24-23 and tying Georgia 18-18 in its second trip to the tournament. since 2007. The Portuguese qualified for the 2027 World Cup by virtue of finishing fourth at the Rugby Europe Championship in March, losing 21-7 to Romania in the third-place game.<\/p>\n
Canada booked its ticket via the Pacific Nations Cup.<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2025.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mason Flesch and Morgan Di Nardo scored Canada\u2019s tries. Robbie Povey kicked four penalties and one conversion and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44937,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-300133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chilliwack-news-fraser-valley-abbotsford-weather-traffic-lower-mainland-fvt","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}