Maori All Blacks put 50 past Canada

The Maori All Blacks made a superb start to their end-of-year campaign when they claimed a 51-9 victory over Canada in Vancouver on Friday.

The visitors were full value for their win and outscored their hosts seven tries to none with Ihaia West contributing 14 points courtesy of four conversions and two penalties.

West put the Maori All Blacks in front when he landed a penalty in the third minute but Canada drew level when Brock Staller added a three-pointer off the kicking tee two minutes later.

Canada took a 6-3 lead in the 15th minute courtesy of another Staller penalty, after Dan Pryor was blown up for a dangerous tackle which also resulted in him spending the next 10 minutes in the sin bin.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Maori All Blacks took the lead shortly afterwards — Ambrose Curtis crossing for the opening try after Charlie Ngatai, Brad Weber and Rob Thompson did well in the build-up.

West added the extras but midway through the half Staller slotted another penalty which meant the Maori All Blacks held a slender 10-9 lead after 20 minutes.

The rest of the half saw Akira Ioane and Tom Franklin scoring converted tries and West also kicked a penalty in the 34th minute which meant the visitors led 27-9 at half-time.

The Maori All Blacks continued to dominate in the second half although they were dealt a blow shortly after the restart when Tim Bateman also received a yellow card for a high tackle.

Despite that setback, Ngatai crossed for their fourth try in the 52nd minute before Canada lock Josh Larsen was also sin-binned for a dangerous challenge on Weber on the hour-mark.

The rest of the match was a one-sided affair and the Maori All Blacks sealed their win in the game's latter stages thanks to well-taken tries from Shaun Stevenson, Jackson Garden-Bachop and Sean Wainui.

The scorers:

For Canada:
Pens:  Staller 3
Yellow Card:  Larsen

For Maori All Blacks:
Tries:  Curtis, Ioane, Franklin, Ngatai, Stevenson, Garden-Bachop, Wainui
Cons:  West 4, Garden-Bachop
Pens:  West 2
Yellow Cards:  Pryor, Bateman

Canada:  15 Andrew Coe, 14 Brock Staller, 13 Ben LeSage, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 11 Dan Moor, 10 Patrick Parfrey, 9 Phil Mack (c), 8 Tyler Ardron, 7 Matt Heaton, 6 Dustin Dobravsky, 5 Josh Larsen, 4 Kyle Baillie, 3 Matt Tierney, 2 Ray Barkwill, 1 Hubert Buydens
Replacements:  16 Eric Howard, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Ryan Kotlewski, 19 Lucas Rumball, 20 Evan Olmstead, 21 Andrew Ferguson, 22 Robbie Povey, 23 Kainoa Lloyd

Maori All Blacks:  15 Charlie Ngatai, 14 Sean Wainui, 13 Tim Bateman, 12 Rob Thompson, 11 Ambrose Curtis, 10 Ihaia West, 9 Brad Weber, 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Tom Franklin, 5 Jarrad Hoeata, 4 Jackson Hemopo, 3 Marcel Renata, 2 Ash Dixon (c), 1 Chris Eves
Replacements:  16 Liam Polwart, 17 Ross Wright, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Jordan Manihere, 20 Sam Henwood, 21 Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 22 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 23 Shaun Stevenson

Referee:  Kurt Weaver (USA)