Travel-weary Canadian men wrap up November tour with rugby test in Portugal

The Canadian men’s rugby team is seeing more of Europe than expected on its November tour.

Between games in Romania, Georgia and Portugal, the squad has spent a fair bit of time cooling its heels in Istanbul due to travel issues.

“I know the airport quite well,” Canada coach Stephen Meehan said dryly, “but I don’t know the city at all.”

After opening with a 31-21 loss to 21st-ranked Romania on Nov. 8, the team’s scheduled flight out of Bucharest was cancelled, forcing it to overnight in Istanbul. The travelling party landed in Batumi, Georgia, a day later, cutting into its preparation time.

The 24th-ranked Canadians faced a lengthy trip to Portugal after losing 38-17 to No. 11 Georgia last Saturday.

“I think it went as smoothly as it could. I don’t think there were any delays of any sort but it still took 25 hours and 25 minutes, from hotel door to hotel door,” said Meehan.

The team took a bus from Batumi to Tbilisi before flying first to Istanbul and then Porto, where a bus took them to Luso where they arrived Sunday evening.

The Canadians wrap up their tour Saturday against No. 20 Portugal at Estádio Cidade de Coimbra. It’s the first meeting between the two since November 2021 in Lisbon when Portugal scored a late try to prevail 20-17 for its first-ever win over the Canadians. Canada had won all four previous meetings.

Both Canada and Portugal have qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Australia and will learn their draw on Dec. 3.

The Portugal game closes out the Canadian men’s schedule for 2025. They are 1-7-0 so far this year and have lost five 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.

Meehan, who took over the team in April, has been unable to get all his talent together at the same time due to injuries, club commitments and other demands.

“We haven’t seen everybody that we hoped to, let’s put it that way,” Meehan said from Portugal. “Obviously by this time next season you’d hope that all the players that will be available for the World Cup have been through the program.

“We know of some of the quality that we’ve seen, albeit briefly. We know the quality of some players that we haven’t see at all … It’s a very difficult situation, to not be able to put a consistent squad together. But as we’ve said in the past, you’ve got to look at the other side of that, which is the opportunity that is presented to others.”

Meehan has made seven changes to his starting 15 with props Sam Miller and Matt Tierney and lock Izzak Kelly joining the pack and scrum half Brock Gallagher, centre Kyle Tremblay, uncapped wing Morgan Di Nardo and fullback Cooper Coats slotting into the backs.

Gallagher replaces the injured Jason Higgins with uncapped James Naylor, who plays for England’s Rotherham Titans, on the bench.

The 20-year-old Di Nardo, who made his debut for Canada at the 2024 Hong Kong Sevens, is coming off a first-team all-Canadian season with the University of Victoria.

Cooper returns to the Canadian lineup for the first time since the August win over the U.S., after a break to focus on his medical studies.

The Canadian starting 15 goes into the match with 245 combined caps, with 64 of those belonging to captain Lucas Rumball. The eight-man bench has a combined 121 caps.

Meehan asked his players for a better start against Georgia than he got against Romania. And despite a shortened week of preparation due to the travel issues, the players delivered although errors like an early errant lineout throw near the Georgian try-line blunted any advantage.

Canada held its own for the first 25 minutes or so, down 5-3 before conceding two more tries to trail 17-3 at the half.

“We still let ourselves down in a couple of areas, in terms of our discipline … So that cost us territory and opportunity,” said Meehan. “But we did start, in general, a lot better than we did the previous week and it’ll be something obviously that we concentrate on again this weekend.”

Georgia took advantage of Canadian turnovers and Meehan has warned his players that Portugal will look to do the same.

“We will need to be vigilant there this weekend because Portugal are a very good side when it comes to counter-attack and to turnover attack,” said the veteran Australian coach.

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.

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.

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.

A number of Portuguese players compete domestically for French clubs. Captain Tomas Appleton, a centre, doubles as a dentist specializing in plastic dental surgery.

Canada Roster

Sam Miller, Mount Denson, N.S., Southern Districts (Australia); Dewald Kotze, Edmonton, Seattle Seawolves (MLR); Matt Tierney, Oakville, Ont., Oakville Crusaders; Piers Von Dadelszen, Vancouver, New England Free Jacks (MLR); Izzak Kelly, White Rock, B.C., Capilano RFC; Mason Flesch, Cobourg, Ont., Chicago Hounds; Lucas Rumball, Toronto, Chicago Hounds (MLR); Matthew Oworu, Calgary, Chicago Hounds; Brock Gallagher, Edmonton, Seattle Seawolves (MLR); Robbie Povey, Calgary Rotherham Titans (England); Nic Benn, Caves Beach, Australia, unattached; Kyle Tremblay, White Rock, B.C., Westshore RFC; Spencer Jones, Cambridge, New Zealand, Hamilton Old Boys; Morgan Di Nardo, Toronto, University of Victoria; Cooper Coats, Halifax, Halifax Tars RFC.

Replacements

Austin Creighton, Edmonton, James Bay AA; Emerson Prior, Brockville, Ont., Westshore RFC; Cole Keith, Sussex, N.B., Belleisle Rovers RFC; Callum Botchar, Vancouver, James Bay AA; Sion Parry, Cardiff, Wales, Ebbw Vale RFC (Wales); James Naylor, Cottingham, England, Rotherham Titans (England); Noah Flesch, Cobourg, Ont., Chicago Hounds (MLR); Peter Nelson, Dungannon, Northern Ireland, Dungannon RFC (Northern Ireland).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025