Canada too good for Russia
Gordon McRorie scored 26 points, including two tries, while Taylor Paris, Pat Parfrey, Jordan Wilson-Ross and Matt Evans also touched down in an impressive performance by Mark Anscombe's men. McRorie also became just the eighth man in Canadian rugby to score 100 test points.
"It felt really good to put in a performance like that," McRorie said. "It's good to get a great win. The dominance of our forwards gave our backs a good platform to perform. It's given us confidence knowing we can score a lot of tries in these kind of games."
Canada came flying out of the blocks as McRorie touched down under the sticks four minutes in after fellow Albertan Mozac Samson had blasted through the Russian line.
It was quickly 12-0 as Paris dove over in the corner after a driving maul from a line-out before it was Evans’turn to get on the scoresheet as the Cornish Pirate was the beneficiary of some hard line running by Paris and Samson.
"It's always exciting to get a win but those first 25 minutes we played superbly," said Anscombe. "We executed as we wished too but again a few symptoms of easing the foot off a bit and it got a bit shabby of times but we scored some good tries and worked hard."
Canada picked up their fourth try of the game in the 24th minute as Evans' miss-pass out wide bounced off the grass into the waiting arms of Parfrey who breeezed over for his second test try. McRorie's conversion gave Canada a commanding 26-0 lead.
"We created a lot out there," Anscombe said. "When we stick to our systems we go well. We had some good aspects of rugby being played and we’ve got to back ourselves to do that."
Russia found their way into the try zone in the 31st minute when prop Innokentiy Zykov powered over with Yury Kushnarev converting to cut the lead to 26-7 at the break.
A McRorie penalty in the 43rd minute pushed Canada's lead to 29-7 before he linked up with Djustice Sears-Duru out wide on a quick give-and-go before sprinting in under the posts to extend the lead to 36-7. A returning Wilson-Ross, who hadn't featured for Canada's senior team in nearly two years, grabbed Canada’s sixth try as he dove in for his first career test tally.
"It's always awesome to pull on the jersey and get a chance to play for your nation," Wilson-Ross said. "I think everyone saw when I threw the ball up in the air I was super pumped. No words can explain how long I’ve waited to get that first try out of the way."
Russia pulled back two consolation tries through Evgeny Elgin and Evgeny Matveev between a final McRorie penalty to conclude a 46-21 victory for Canada, collecting their fourth win in as many fixtures against their Russian counterparts.
"We're extremely happy to get a win in front of a great home crowd today," captain Jamie Cudmore said. "We're taking steps week by week and getting better. To play in front of a sold out crowd who are right on top of us is huge and I think that showed in our performance today."
