U.S. strikes early in rugby win over Canada

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 at soggy Swangard Stadium.

Ryan Matyas scored a try inside two minutes for the Americans before Te’o added his first moments later. Shaun 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.

“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.

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.

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.