Canada hold off Russian Bears
Canada ran through Russia to win 35-3 on the north Wales coast on Saturday, their third straight win over the Bears.
Canada led 16-3 at halftime and 35-3 after 57 minutes, then held out the Russians who played with desperate pride in the last quarter.
The Canadians were satisfied after being thumped by Samoa 42-12 at the same Parc Eirias last week.
"We felt we had to bring a little more physicality," captain Aaron Carpenter said. "We ran some hard lines and broke them and scored some nice tries."
Right wing Jeff Hassler, who made his debut in June, showed off blistering speed in scoring two of Canada's four tries and setting up a third.
He claimed his maiden test try in the 18th minute. After Russia knocked on deep in Canada's half, Canada counterattacked and Hassler blew 50 meters down the right wing. James Pritchard converted for 13-3. Pritchard missed only his seventh and last goalkick.
Soon after halftime, Hassler took an up-and-under over his shoulder running back in defense, turned, and broke past five defenders before taking the last tackle to run in fellow wing Taylor Paris.
Inside centre Nick Blevins scored from his own charge-down three minutes later, and Hassler finished the scoring when he wrongfooted two defenders and outpaced the cover to the right corner.
The scorers:
For Canada:
Tries: Hassler 2, Paris, Blevins
Cons: Pritchard 3
Pens: Pritchard 3
For Russia:
Pen: Klyuchnikov
Teams:
Canada: 15 James Pritchard, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Nick Blevins, 11 Taylor Paris, 10 Harry Jones, 9 Eric Wilson, 8 Aaron Carpenter (captain), 7 Chauncey O'Toole, 6 Tyler Ardon, 5 Tyler Hotson, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 3 Jason Marshall, 2 Ryan Hamilton, 1 Andrew Tiedemann.
Replacements: 16 Hubert Buydens, 17 Ray Barkwill, 18 Doug Wooldridge, 19 Jon Phelan, 20 John Moonlight, 21 Nanyak Dala, 22 Phil Mack, 23 Connor Braid.
Russia: 15 Igor Klyuchnikov, 14 Denis Simplikevich, 13 Vasily Artemyev, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Vladimir Ostroushko, 10 Sergey Sugrobov, 9 Alexey Shcherban, 8 Victor Gresev, 7 Pavel Butenko, 6 Andrey Temnov, 5 Kirill Kulemin, 4 Alexander Voytov (captain), 3 Evgeny Pronenko, 2 Valery Tsnobiladze, 1 Grigory Tsnobiladze.
Replacements: 16 Vladislav Korshunov, 17 Alexey Volkov, 18 Innokentiy Zykov, 19 Andrey Garbuzov, 20 Ramil Gaysin, 21 Gleb Babkin, 22 Yuri Vengerov, 23 Sergey Trishin.
Referee: Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Tim Hayes (Wales), Wayne Davies (Wales)
