Spain pushes past Canada 24-23 in men's rugby test match
The host Canadians recovered from an 11-6 halftime deficit at Edmonton's Clarke Stadium to take a 20-11 lead on the strength of two tries by Calgary's Matt Oworu.
Peter Nelson of Dungannon, Northern Island, contributed 13 points from the tee for Canada, but Spain capitalized on a last-minute penalty to snatch the win.
López Bontempo's 25-metre kick sealed the victory for the visitors.
Back-to-back yellow cards to Canada's props — Calixto Martinez for a high tackle and Emerson Prior for collapsing a maul — had handed momentum back to Spain. A penalty try and another Bontempo kick brought the score to 23-21.
The match wrapped July's test window for Canada ahead of the Pacific Nations Cup.
Canada opens against the United States in Calgary on Aug. 22 in a match that doubles as the start of Canada's 2027 Rugby World Cup qualification campaign.
'I think we showed we have the talent to hang with everyone,' Oworu said after the loss to Spain.
'When we were pushing to score at the end, we just slipped for half-a-second, and that's just test rugby. It's a game of inches, and we just missed on that last inch.'
'As long as we play in the right places and listen to our shot-callers, there's no need to search for other answers — all the answers are in the room. We're confident.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Five ice hockey players found not guilty in Canada sexual assault case
Five Canadian ice hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a woman were all acquitted by an Ontario judge on Thursday. In a packed courtroom, Justice Maria Carroccia reviewed testimony and evidence from the highly publicised eight-week trial over the course of several hours, before declaring the men not guilty. The former players for Canada's world junior hockey team were accused of assaulting the woman, known as EM, in a hotel room in 2018 in London, Ontario, where they had attended a Hockey Canada gala. Justice Carroccia said she did not find EM's evidence "credible or reliable". She added that "the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me". The central issue of the trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time, had consented to every sexual act in the room that night. Lawyers for the players contended that she asked the men to have sex with her and they believed she gave consent. Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton and Carter Hart were all players with the National Hockey League (NHL) when the allegations surfaced, although one was playing in Europe. Only one, Mr Hart, testified in his own defence. The trial attracted significant attention in Canada, and so many people attended court to hear the ruling on Thursday that clerks had to open two additional overflow rooms. Hockey Canada: A sex assault scandal disgraces country's pastime Four NHL players charged in Canada over 2018 sexual assault In explaining her ruling, Justice Carroccia pointed to inconsistencies in EM's testimony, including about who had bought drinks that night, and said EM's statements reflected an "uncertain memory" that did not line up with evidence presented in the trial. There were differences in what the woman told police investigators and those for Hockey Canada, which settled a C$3.5m ($2.5m; £1.9m) lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2022, as well, the judge said. Two videos from the incident were shared in the trial, where EM was recorded giving her consent to the activities. The first was taken without her knowledge. While, under Canadian law, the videos did not establish consent, the judge said they did show EM "speaking normally, smiling," and that she "did not appear to be in distress." That undercut the Crown's argument that EM did not leave the room out of fear, she said. It is unclear if the Crown will appeal the ruling, with prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham saying in a statement that they will carefully review the decision. She also said they had received "dozens of messages from people across Canada and abroad" expressing thanks and support for EM. "A successful prosecution is not measured solely by whether there are guilty verdicts at the end," she said. "The Crown's goal throughout this proceeding has been to see a fair trial, a trial that is fair to the men charged, and one that is also fair to EM." Throughout the trial, the Crown argued the woman's testimony was credible, that "intoxication does not equal unreliability" and that any inconsistencies in her testimony were minor. They also argued the woman did not have a motive to fabricate a story and that she had initially reported the alleged assault to police in 2018, four years before filing the lawsuit against Hockey Canada. They added that text messages between the players allegedly showed it was Mr McLeod's idea to invite his teammates to the room and that the players allegedly engaged in "getting their story straight" by drafting a narrative that EM had consented to all sexual activity. Defence lawyers, however, argued that EM's testimony was undermined by eyewitness evidence , in which other players who were in the hotel room that night but were not charged said she was "vocal" about what she wanted sexually. They said the evidence suggested the woman was a willing participant who later experienced regret, and added that intoxication in this case did not equal "incapacity", submitting video evidence suggesting EM had not shown signs of extreme intoxication.
USA Today
38 minutes ago
- USA Today
'My best putting round I ever had': Adam Svensson cans 50-foot eagle, shoots 60 at 3M Open
BLAINE, Minn. — Facing a 50-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 18th, Adam Svensson's caddie pointed to a spot about 20 feet away and told him to aim there. 'I did and it went in,' Svensson said. It capped off a thrilling opening-round course-record 11-under 60 at TPC Twin Cities to grab the lead at the 3M Open by two strokes over Sam Stevens. Tying his career-low round on the PGA Tour came out of the blue given that he had missed the cut in four of his last five starts and entered the week ranked No. 170 in the FedEx Cup. 'It's been a rough year but it's golf, it's very difficult,' he said. But Svensson sensed that his game wasn't far off and he had a feeling that better play was in store after what he termed 'a great range session today.' The 31-year-old Canadian, who has one Tour win at the 2023 RSM Classic, has been working on refining his golf swing for the past two years because he's struggled on Sundays, which is payday. 'I feel like I start off good and then kind of dwindle a little bit,' he said. That will be something to watch as the tournament progresses but it didn't hurt that he couldn't miss with the putter on Thursday. He birdied the first from 19 feet and holed out from just off the green at the par-3 fourth from 34 feet for another circle on the card. He made back-to-back birdies at Nos. 6 and 7 but that was nothing compared to a string of four birdies in a row starting at No. 9. He added another at 16 before the big bird, the eagle at 18. 'Just really putted amazing, I made a bunch of breakers. It was probably my best putting round I ever had,' said Svensson, who gained nearly 5 strokes on the field on the greens. Sam Stevens was his closest pursuer in the morning wave. He chipped in at 13 and made 10 birdies in all. Shooting 59 crossed his mind when he found the fairway at the par-5 18th and had 246 yards to carry the lake fronting the green. But he splashed a 3-iron short of the green, salvaged a bogey and posted 62. 'I have a pretty big gap between my 3-iron and my 3-wood, and I hit a terrible shot but I thought if I hit a 3-wood, it was just going to fly to the back of the green, and I kind of had to hit a 3-iron perfect to even cover the water. But I figured that was my best chance to shoot 59, so I gave it a go. Didn't hit a good shot, but made a nice up-and-down for 6, so I guess that's a positive,' he said. 'Yeah, not the best way to finish the round, but gave it a crack.' More: PGA Tour star Max Homa wants to win the 3M Open — and hopefully see the birth of his child Still, his son, Henry, one of his four boys, congratulated outside scoring, saying, 'Dad, good playing today.' Henry apparently is as tough a judge as that Czech skating official at the Olympics. 'No, they're a tough crowd to please. Yeah, it's good when they tell me 'good playing.' Made a lot of circles out there today. They like it when I make the circles. It was a fun round,' Stevens said. 'And I think my last competitive round, the final round at the Scottish, I made zero birdies so today was better.' Veteran Chad Ramey shot 63 and former Auburn Tiger Brendan Valdes, who shot 28 on the front nine and nine pars on the back nine, posted 64. Rickie Fowler led a quartet at 65 and Max Homa was part of a logjam of 10 golfers to card 5-under 66.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hockey Canada players acquitted of sexual assault in 2018 case
Five former members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault on Thursday, July 24, after a trial in London, Ontario, with a judge saying she didn't find the complainant's evidence "credible or reliable." 'I cannot rely upon the evidence of (the accuser) and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me," Justice Maria Carroccia said, per the Athletic. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault. McLeod faced a second charge of being a party to the offense, and he was also found not guilty of that charge. All had pleaded not guilty. Hart was the only defendant who testified. Carroccia rendered the ruling on Thursday, spelling out her reasoning. Juries had been dismissed on two occasions, once after an early mistrial was declared in the eight-week trial, and it was decided that the judge would rule on the case. The players were in London in June 2018 for a Hockey Canada gala honoring the gold medal-winning world junior championship team. The tournament is for under-20 players. Police say the alleged assaults took place in a hotel room after the defendants had met the woman, then 20, at a downtown bar. According to Canadian network TSN, the woman testified that she had consensual sex with McLeod and after she went to the bathroom, she saw him texting. He left the room and soon returned with two others, she said. Others also later came into the room. 'I shut down and let my body do what it needed to do to keep me safe," she told the court, per the network. "It felt like the safe thing to do was give them what they were wanting." But the judge said, "In this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear," The Athletic reported. Carroccia addressed consent videos that McLeod recorded with the woman. The judge said the woman "did not display any signs of intoxication" in the videos and had "no difficulty speaking," per CBC. Carroccia said she believed the woman exaggerated her level of intoxication. CBC also said the judge noted the woman talked in court about telling "her truth," not "the truth." History of the investigation The London police department's initial investigation closed in February 2019 without any charges. It was reopened in July 2022, two months after TSN reported that May that Hockey Canada paid an undisclosed settlement to a woman who alleged in a $3.55 million lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by eight players in a hotel room. The players were charged in February 2024. Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the police department's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section said at the time that additional witnesses were spoken to and additional evidence was collected, starting in 2022. "I can confirm that some of this evidence was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019," she said in a news conference. "This is one investigation, not two. The evidence that was collected in 2018 and 2019 was used in combination with newly gathered evidence to form reasonable and probable grounds to charge these five individuals with sexual assault." The NHL conducted its own investigation but said it would not reveal its findings until after the legal case was completed. Commissioner Gary Bettman had called the allegations "abhorrent." All but Formenton were with NHL teams at the time they were charged and took leaves of absences. Their teams cut them loose in June 2024 by not giving them qualifying offers, making them free agents. McLeod, now 27, played for the New Jersey Devils, Hart, 26, for the Philadelphia Flyers, Dubé, 27, for the Calgary Flames and Foote, 26, played for three NHL teams, mostly recently the Devils. Formenton, 25, played for the Ottawa Senators until 2021-22. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hockey Canada trial: Five players acquitted of sexual assault
