Magnus helps Scotland to victory in Canada
Scotland scored seven tries and saw impressive debuts from four young players as they defeated Canada 48-10 in Edmonton on the first leg of the 2018 Summer Tour.
Hooker George Turner scored a hat-trick of tries after coming on for Fraser Brown in the first half, and became the first Scotland player to touch-down three times since Ally Hogg against Romania in 2007.
Scotland were looking to test out new combinations and bring new faces into the Test team at the Commonwealth Stadium and the visitors generated strong set-pieces and good understanding among the backs in a game often that lacked fluidity.
Canada had the edge in experience, with 343 caps spread out among its starting 15. The Scottish starting XV had just 177 combined caps, with 10 players still to reach double digits in Test appearances. Scotland settled into the game more quickly, gained good possession and generated four tries through driving mauls
and a good set piece, which gave them a dominant platform as the game wore on.
Canada had chances in the first 40 minutes but did not threaten the visitors line and had to deal with a yellow card after prop Noah Barker was binned for a late tackle on fellow loose-head prop Alan Dell.
At the home of the Edmonton Eskimos CFL team, any chance of a Canada win slowly melted in the sultry evening heat as Scotland steadily built a lead they never relinquished from Sam Hidalgo-Clyne’s opening penalty on the five-minute mark.
A try from Bryon McGuigan shortly after, following a neat pick-up off the deck from debutant James Lang, put the winger in at the corner (0-8).
Ruaridh Jackson was rewarded after another strong lineout maul in the Canadian’s 22 created space on the narrow side for the Glasgow Warrior to score.
Half-time: Canada 3-15 Scotland
Hooker Turner opened his account early in the second-half from an attacking lineout. The Scottish rolling maul punched a hole in the hosts defence and Turner dotted down (3-22).
Canada responded well and put the Scots under pressure from the restart, resulting in a penalty try and Jackson being sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on (10-22).
Adam Hastings came off the bench to replace fellow debutant, to make a piece of Scottish rugby history, following his father Gavin’s footsteps to represent his country and becoming the 15th father/son combinations to be capped for Scotland.
In-form Edinburgh fullback Blair Kinghorn made his first start in his favoured position and narrowly missed out on a score on 53 minutes, being held up after breaking through the home defence.
Soon after, however, Edinburgh back-row Magnus Bradbury broke through a gap in the defence to score (10-29).
Edinburgh lock Lewis Carmichael joined the game on the hour to make his Scotland debut, replacing Ben Toolis, with Murray McCallum coming on for Simon Berghan at the same time.
McCallum put in a thumping tackle on half-way to stop a Canada attack and win Scotland a penalty, and was nearly the recipient of the resulting try from a rolling maul, but it was ruled out.
Scotland did, however, have a penalty, which was kicked to the corner, with Turner finishing the resulting maul for his second (10-34).
Three minutes later Turner had his hat-trick from an identical move, as the Canadian defence tired up front (10-41).
Scotland, to their credit, still looked hungry and continued to pass crisply and run through their attacking patterns as the game entered the final phases.
As the Scots pressured Canada in their 22, Bradbury fed Lewis Carmichael, who took a great inside line and powered on for 20 metres to score on his debut to complete the win and secure the Douglas JL Horn Memorial Cup.