Canada beats Uruguay 33-17 to open 2016 Americas Rugby Championship

LANGLEY, B.C. – Dan Moor scored two tries as Canada opened the 2016 Americas Rugby Championship with a 33-17 victory over Uruguay on Saturday.

Phil Mackenzie, Nick Blevins and Alistair Clark also had tries as the Canadians opened up a 19-0 lead just 25 minutes into the match.

“We worked together and came up as a team,” interim coach Francois Ratier said. “That’s the spirit we want. I am pleased for the boys.

“We talked about living in the moment and not thinking about number of caps or whatever. Just play rugby.”

Canada took a 19-7 edge into the break and added two more second-half tries while holding off a determined Uruguayan side.

“It was really important for us to close that game out,” Mackenzie said. “It was a great experience. A test win is a test win. We’re pretty pumped.”

Mackenzie got things rolling as he went over seven minutes in after Gradyn Bowd found him with a looping pass.

Canada extended its lead when Blevins went over in the 19th minute and Gordon McRorie intercepted a pass and offloaded to Moor, who flew down the wing to score only eight minutes later. McRorie added the conversion before Uruguay grabbed a penalty try in the 33rd minute to cut the deficit to 19-7 at the interval.

“It was a special moment for me personally but I think the bigger moment is we came together as a team on a short week,” Moor said.

Canada will travel to Austin, Tex., for its second game of the Americas Rugby Championship next Saturday.