Young Scottish side shows its class in rugby win over Canadian men

Scotland fell behind 5-0 early but reeled off the next 31 points en route to a 73-12 win over Canada in a rugby test match Saturday.

The 21st-ranked Canadian men were 25-1 underdogs to beat a sixth-ranked Scottish side missing many of its big names.

Despite the lack of test experience and a wobbly, penalty-filled start, the quality of the touring Scots soon shone through as Canada's early lead turned into a 24-5 deficit at the half. Scotland then won the second half by a 49-7 margin.

Dylan Richardson, Gus Warr and Arron Reed scored two tries apiece and Josh Bayliss, Harry Paterson, Jamie Dobie, Stafford McDowall and Kyle Steyn added singles for Scotland. Ross Thompson booted five conversions while Ben Healy added four more.

Captain Lucas Rumball and Kyle Baillie scored tries for Canada. Peter Nelson kicked a conversion.

"Credit to Scotland," said Rumball. "You make the wrong move, you make the wrong read, you make a mistake, they make you pay for it. It's five points on the board. So we've got to adapt to that."

The game was the first for the Canadians since a 40-15 win on Nov. 18 over No. 29 Brazil that snapped a four-game losing streak for Kingsley Jones' team. The Canadian men had won just three of their previous 10 tests and haven't beaten a team ranked in the top 20 since they defeated the United States 34-21 in September 2021.

Scotland, meanwhile, finished fourth at 2-3-0 in the Six Nations earlier this year.

With Scottish stars such as fly half Finn Russell left at home to rest, Gregor Townsend's starting 15 totalled just 58 caps with prop Rory Sutherland accounting for 30 of them.

The Scottish starting lineup featured five uncapped players in Max Williamson, Gregor Brown, Matt Currie, Warr and Reed. Five other