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“We’re hurting a little,” Team Canada captain Aaron Carpenter said following Saturday’s loss, a particularly difficult one for his team to take since it started well and in stretches looked like it was finally going to break through for a win.

“It was a difficult day. We played some real good stretches of rugby but we let ourselves down with little details. We left too many points out there.”

Some of those little details were actually big deals as the Canadians’ inability to hold onto the ball led to several turnovers that led to many U.S. points.

Photo by Mike Carroccetto / Ottawa Citizen

And then there were the defensive breakdowns, in particular a slight shimmy fake by Andrew Suniula that opened up a huge hole and led to a long run for a try that, once converted, gave the Americans a 27-16 lead and essentially the match.

That came after Canada, which trailed 17-6 at the half, had cut the Americans’ lead to 20-16 on second-half tries from Taylor Paris and Nick Blevins.

The Suniula try came with Canadian Phil Mack off for 10 minutes after getting a yellow card from referee Stuart Berry of South Africa for stamping on a U.S. defender.

Along with the Suniula try, the Americans also got a try from Mike Petri on the penalty to take a 34-16 lead.

“In the second half, we got back into it, kept the ball, put some phases together,” Canadian head coach Kieran Crowley said.

“We’re giving up too many penalties, too much stupidity around that area and too many turnovers. It just wasn’t good enough.”