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Canadian players wowed by touching gesture: 'It's huge, it's an honour'

Canada captain Tyler Ardron shares a laugh with All Blacks midfielder Sonny Bill Williams. (Photo by Hannah Peters / Getty Images)

NZ Herald

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The All Blacks have once again shown why they are the nice guys at the Rugby World Cup, with Canada left touched by their gratitude after the All Blacks’ 63-0 win on Wednesday.

After the clash, the All Blacks invited the Canadians into their dressing rooms, a gesture that their opponents described as “a huge honour.”

“We wanted to earn their respect through the way we played, and them inviting us in was a token of respect for us”, said Peter Nelson after he swapped jerseys with All Black first five Richie Mo’unga.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, as well as skipper Kieran Read, reached out to Canucks after the two sides thanked the crowd in Oita.

“I saw Steve after the game and he said, ‘If you guys want, come grab a beer with us after and say hi’,” said Canada captain Tyler Ardron, who plays for the Chiefs and Bay of Plenty.

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“I went over straight after and swapped jerseys with Kieran and he mentioned it again, so I got the whole team to go over.”

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Canada prop Jake Ilnicki, who said visiting the opposition dressing room was rare, got the opportunity to exchange jerseys with his opposite, Nepo Laulala.

“He was a bit hesitant because he said he normally keeps his jerseys to give back to his community, which is something I do as well. He said he doesn’t normally swap, but he felt he had to at the end of that game, which was pretty cool to get that respect from him.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3IpWXhAleN/

The players enjoyed some laughs after the hard-fought game, including poking some fun at All Blacks lock Scott Barrett after he knocked the ball on over the line when attempting to score a try.

“We laughed about how tired we all were because the same thing happened when we had the ball,” Ardron said. “It was just a laugh.”

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Canada second-rower Josh Larsen said: “I had a talk to Scott after the game and we had a bit of a joke about it. The others were giving him a bit of a stick and I think the second one that he did score, he almost fumbled it, too.”

Richie Mo'unga and Peter Nelson
Richie Mo’unga and Peter Nelson swapped jerseys after the 2019 World Cup match between New Zealand and Canada. (Photo by Hannah Peters / Getty Images)

Larsen, who grew up playing rugby in New Zealand, got to swap jerseys with childhood teammate Jack Goodhue.

“They were very welcoming, a humble group,” he said. “We shared our thoughts on the game. They were interested in North American rugby, what players do on this side of the world.

“That’s the beautiful thing about rugby – enemies on the field and then friends off it. There’s still that camaraderie and humbleness to the whole thing.”

“It’s huge, it’s an honour,” said Canada’s Lucas Rumball of the All Blacks’ hospitality. “It shows how hard we worked and how we’re growing as a team.”

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.

See what Mario Ledesma had to say after Argentina’s loss to England:

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Bull Shark 3 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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