Drained Canadians face tall order

Five days. It may be enough to flush the lactic acid from their legs, but Canada will find it harder to rinse the pain of that defeat to Italy last Saturday from their minds as they back up against France in Milton Keynes on Thursday.

Head coach Kieran Crowley admitted that his team were “shattered” after that five-point loss in Leeds and he reiterated yesterday what everyone already knew, that his team should have beaten the Azzurri, while attempting to gee up the troops for the French.

“It’s always a big drain on them,” Crowley said of the loss. “Our role is to keep things fresh, keep things up. You have that big disappointment, but that’s part of rugby.