U.S. scores early and often in Americas Rugby Championship victory over Canada

Feb 18, 2017 | 6:15 PM

BURNABY, B.C. — Canada called up a young squad for the Americas Rugby Championship. That doesn’t mean men’s head coach Mark Anscombe will treat his players with kid gloves.

Mike Te’o scored three tries as the United States jumped out to an early 15-0 lead on the way to handily defeating Canada 51-34 on Saturday night.

Ryan Matyas scored a try inside two minutes for the Americans before Te’o added his first moments later. Saun Davies converted the first try and Will Magie booted a long penalty to make it 15-0 for the visitors with just over 10 minutes gone at a stunned and soggy Swangard Stadium.

“Another disappointing performance,” said Anscombe. “To concede two tries in the first four minutes, it’s not acceptable. The way it was done, it was just poor by us. Missed tackles, that’s basic stuff. Not being up for it at the start and then we’re chasing.”

Canada, ranked 18th in the world, opened the tournament with a 20-6 loss to Argentina’s second-tier side on Feb. 4 before bouncing back with a 36-15 victory over Chile last weekend. The U.S. is now 3-0 after a 29-23 victory over No. 23 Uruguay and a 51-3 whitewash of No. 34 Brazil.

“Defence wins games and tonight we didn’t really front up defensively,” said Admir Cejvanovic, who had one of the Canadian tries. “We were just playing catch up the whole game.”

Tony Purpura, Todd Clever and John Quill also had tries for the Americans, while Davies added five conversions and a penalty.

Taylor Paris, with two, Phil Mack and George Barton had Canada’s other tries. Robbie Povey booted a conversion and a penalty, while Gordon McRorie chipped in with two conversions.

Both teams have relatively inexperienced rosters for the Americas Rugby Championship with an eye on development ahead of the countries’ clash in a two-legged World Cup qualifier later this year.

The Canadians will now fly south to play Uruguay on Feb. 25 and Brazil on March 3, while the Americans play at Chile on Feb. 25 and at Argentina on March 4.

“It was a good performance,” said U.S. head coach John Mitchell, whose team is ranked 17th. “I thought we had a good start and a good finish to the first half. We got a little bit loose defensively a couple of times, but we stuck to our processes.”

Making his first test start for Canada, Povey missed a penalty from inside 40 metres in the 13th minute with his team down 15-0, but fed Paris moments later for the hosts’ first try. Povey missed the ensuing conversion to keep the deficit at 10.

Mack got Canada closer in the 21st minute on a nice move from five metres out, and Povey’s conversion made it 15-12.

Davies booted a penalty 10 minutes later from 35 metres out to put the U.S. up by six, but Povey responded with a penalty of his own from 40 metres in the 36th.

With his team having clawed back from that early deficit to trail by just three, Canadian captain Ray Barkwill was then shown a yellow card for not using his arms on a tackle with three minutes left in the half. The Americans took advantage of that numerical edge when Purpura finished off a rolling maul with a try before Davies’ conversion made it 25-15 at the break.

The call on the yellow by referee Damian Schneider left both Barkwill and Anscombe scratching their heads.

“Watch the clip of the game and he clearly used his arms,” said Anscombe. “If (the ref) is in doubt, how can he (give Barkwill a yellow)? He wasn’t sure, but he (did).

“They got momentum from that and that was the ball game.”

Added Barkwill: “I’ll argue that one all day long.”

Povey missed another penalty three minutes into the second half, and the U.S. went back the other way with Te’o getting on the end of a chip to bag his second try. The score stood at 30-15 after Davies missed the conversion.

The Americans put the game out of reach in the 54th when Clever went over for a try, with Davies’ conversion making it 37-15.

Paris suffered a head injury late in the first half, but returned to score his second try in the 57th when he made a nice move to avoid a tackler to make it 37-20 after a missed McRorie conversion.

Quill then went over for the Americans’ sixth try in the 65th minute that Davies converted to make it 44-20.

Barton scored a try in the 69th to make it 44-27 after McRorie’s conversion, but Te’o put an accent on his night with his third try two minutes later that Davies once again converted.

Cejvanovic, who was playing in his hometown for the first time with the national team, rounded out the scoring with a try in the 77th minute that was followed up by McRorie conversion.

“Every time we answered them they answered right back,” said Cejvanovic. “You’ve got to make some stops.”

Notes: Paris scored three tries in Canada’s victory over Chile last Saturday. … Canada owns a 38-17-1 all-time record against the U.S., but has lost six in a row after winning seven straight. The Canadians last beat the Americans 13-11 in the second leg of their Rugby World Cup qualifier in 2013. … Attendance was 3,416.

Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press