Ireland see off Canada

Declan Kidney's new-look Ireland side began their tour of Canada with an unconvincing 25-6 victory in Vancouver.

The success was comfortable enough thanks to tries from Barry Murphy, Ian Whitten and Tony Buckley -- however, the lack of their Lions players and those of Heineken Cup winners Leinster did not help their cause.

The tourists led 7-3 at the interval thanks to Murphy's penalty, which was converted by Ian Keatley -- who had missed an early penalty by some distance.

But James Pritchard kicked his second penalty following the resumption to move Canada to within a point of Ireland and lift their hopes of an unexpected success.

However, Ireland took control of the game with another penalty from Connacht fly-half Keatley, followed by tries from debutant Whitten and Buckley.

Canada hooker Adam Kleeberger was sin-binned on the hour for a professional foul and Keatley took advantage with the penalty.

And the tourists moved further clear soon after the hour mark when Danny Cave sent Ulster team-mate and fellow debutant Whitten clear for a third try.

Buckley wrapped up the scoring when he surged over in the corner following a pass from Ulster team-mate Peter Stringer, although Keatley was off target with his conversion attempt.

Kidney's men are next in action on May 31, when they take on the United States in California.

The scorers:

For Canada:
Pens:  Pritchard

For Ireland:
Tries:  Murphy, Whitten, Buckley
Cons:  Keatley
Pens:  Keatley

Canada:  15 James Pritchard, 14 Dean van Camp, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Ryan Smith, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 David Spicer, 9 Ed Fairhurst, 8 Aaron Carpenter, 7 Adam Kleeberger, 6 Chauncey O'Toole, 5 Mike Burak, 4 Tyler Hotson, 3 Scott Franklin, 2 Pat Riordan (c), 1 Kevin Tkachuk
Replacements:  16 Andrew Tiedemann, 17 Luke Tait, 18 Jebb Sinclair, 19 Nanyak Dala, 20 Sean Michael Stephen, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Ander Monro.

Ireland:  15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Barry Murphy, 13 Darren Cave, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Ian Dowling, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Bob Casey, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Tom Court.
Replacements:  16 Sean Cronin, 17 Mike Ross, 18 Ryan Caldwell, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Eoin Reddan, 21 Niall O'Connor, 22 Denis Hurley.