The British Columbia Bears, making astute use of the speed afforded by the turf field at Victoria's Bear Mountain Stadium, defeated the Russian national rugby team 38-16 on Tuesday night before nearly 2,000 fans.
"They are big and strong but we've been together since the summer (winning the Canadian division of the International Rugby Board Americas Tournament) and that helped," said B.C. captain Ed Fairhurst of Victoria, the two-time World Cup veteran.
"So it didn't take us long to adapt to each other. A lot of these B.C. guys also play on the national team."
It was the first IRB-sanctioned game on turf in Canada.
The plan for B.C. was to take advantage of that against the larger, 16th-ranked Russians, who are preparing to face No. 14 Canada in a full test match Saturday at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby.
Matt Buckley had a notable first half as the Bears went into the break leading 19-3.
Buckley's cheeky chip in, fallen on by Brock Nicholson, accounted for B.C.'s first try at just six minutes.
