The USA extended their record unbeaten run against Canada to nine Tests in the first rugby Test ever played in Nova Scotia on Saturday, following their historic win over Scotland in Houston with a six-try, 42-17 victory over their struggling northern neighbours.
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Thanks to a superior pack, US fly-half AJ MacGinty dictated proceedings after his team had endured a rugged opening quarter from the home side.
“I dont think there’s any trend or anything to particularly worry about, we started a lot better today than we have in a lot of other games,” Eagles head coach Gary Gold said after the game, asked about his team’s slow start.
“Sometimes you can find yourself over analysing things but the really positive point is once we did concede any points, we didn’t panic. The guys stuck to the task and it was a good performance.”
A chip and scoop by MacGinty set up the former Northampton and Cardiff No8 Cam Dolan for the first USA try, and the Sale fly-half’s cut-out pass sent in the left wing Nate Augspurger, now with the San Diego Legion in Major League Rugby, for the second. Canada threatened on halftime but lost the ball on the line and trailed 13-3 at the break.
Augspurger turned provider for Dolan’s second before Canada replied by sending the Newcastle flanker Evan Olmstead over in a rolling maul to trail by 10 and still be a threat.
That evaporated with about 10 minutes to go when Eagles replacement flanker Vili Toluta’u, on his debut out of the Seattle Seawolves MLR team, was held up. Dolan used the following scrum to power over for his hat-trick try.
The match finished with three more tries, for the US from the captain, Cardiff’s Blaine Scully, and the Free State Cheetahs scrum-half Ruben de Haas. Jeff Hassler crossed the line for Canada.
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Canada have traditionally dominated the rivalry for the CanAm trophy, but the US have now not lost to their neighbours in four years, going undefeated in five matches in Canada and four at home.
The Eagles, ranked 15 in the world, won the two teams’ World Cup qualifying contest conclusively and will face England, France, Argentina and Tonga in Japan next year. Canada, No22, have yet to qualify.
The Americans are undefeated in 2018, having won the Americas Rugby Championship in the spring and beaten Russia 62-13 this month for a record eight-match unbeaten run. Scotland and Russia both beat Canada heavily.
The US next play in the fall, when they face the Maori All Blacks in Chicago and then travel to face Ireland and other as yet unidentified opponents. Canada are heading for the World Cup repechage tournament in France in November, where they will face the loser of a playoff between Germany and Samoa and two other teams yet to be determined.