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Happy hooker Turner bags hat-trick as Scots trounce Canada

Edmonton - Hooker George Turner scored a hat-trick as Scotland opened their summer tour with a comfortable 48-10 victory over Canada in Edmonton on Saturday.

Turner became the first Scot to score an international hat-trick in more than a decade as the tourists' power and fitness overwhelmed the hosts at the Commonwealth Stadium.

An encouraging opener also saw Gregor Townsend hand a second half debut to Adam Hastings, son of legendary former Scotland and British Lions captain Gavin Hastings.

Scotland took the lead in the opening exchanges, scrumhalf Sam Hidalgo-Clyne slotting a straightforward penalty in front of the posts after Canada infringed at the breakdown.

Scotland's early dominance soon led to a try in the ninth minute, inside centre James Lang finding Byron McGuigan with a crisp pass for the left wing to dot down in the corner for 8-0.

Hidalgo-Clyne missed the chance to add to his tally, sending the conversion attempt wide.

A rare good spell for Canada soon afterwards ended with a penalty for Shane O'Leary, the Canadian flyhalf opening the scoring for the hosts after the Scots infringed near their own 22.

But Canada were soon rocking after a controversial flashpoint in the 18th minute, when prop Noah Barker was sent to the sinbin for a blatant off the ball incident that took out Scottish loosehead Allan Dell.

Scotland's attempts to make their advantage count however were frustrated by some desperate Canadian defence, and Scotland fly-half Ruaridh Jackson had a try disallowed when he was deemed not to have grounded.

Jackson made no mistake though six minutes from half-time, bagging Scotland's second try as Canada's resistance finally broke, Hidalgo-Clyne adding the two points to make it 15-3 at half-time.

Scotland were again quick to get into their groove after the restart, with Turner bagging his first of the night after a well-executed rolling maul from a lineout. Hidalgo-Clyne's conversion put the Scots 19 points clear at 22-3.

Yet Canada hit back quickly after Jackson was adjudged to have made a deliberate knock-on to thwart a score for the hosts' centre Ben LeSage, earning the Canadians a penalty try for 22-10.

With Canada beginning to tire rapidly, Scotland began punching through the Canadian defence at will.

Blair Kinghorn was denied by a desperate DTH van der Merwe tackle, but soon after Magnus Bradbury powered through weak tackling to score a try converted by Kinghorn for 29-10.

From there on, it became a question of how many more Scotland would score.

Turner crossed for his second of the game from a rolling maul and then completed his hat-trick from another drive inside the final 10 minutes.

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