New Zealand Maori All Blacks breeze past Canada

Jamison Gibson-Park scored two tries to help the New Zealand Maori All-Blacks over Canada 40-15 in a rugby union clash on Sunday.

Gibson-Park, a late entry at halfback after Piri Weepu was unable to start, grabbed a bouncing ball that was deflected by a Canadian defender for a first-half try that put the Maori ahead to stay at 12-5 after an Andre Taylor conversion.

Gibson-Park scored again in the 50th minute off a pass from Zac Guildford to open the second half scoring, boosting the Maori advantage to 26-5.

Canada’s Jeff Hassler opened the scoring with a try but Guildford equalized for the visitors at 5-5.

Maori fullback Robbie Robinson scored just before half-time and Taylor converted for a 19-6 lead over Canada at the break.

The Canadians, bolstered by a record home-nation rugby crowd of 22,566, closed the gap with a Liam Underwood penalty kick and Underwood converted after an Aaron Carpenter try to pull the hosts within 26-15 after 59 minutes.

But the Maori answered on replacement wing Matt Proctor’s try in the 69th minute and prop Nick Barrett finished off the scoring in the final minutes with a try.

The Maori conclude their North American tour with a match next Saturday against the United States at Philadelphia while Canada will travel to Europe for matches later this month at Georgia, Romania and Portugal.