Scotland had trailed with only a few moments remaining in normal time but dug deep to deny the gallant Canadians and earn their second consecutive win at the tournament.
Neither team was able to gain the ascendancy throughout a testing match littered with handling errors, where penalties were often given away in good attacking positions by the team in possession.
Canadian scrum half Sean White broke superbly from his own 22 before waiting intelligently for support to reach him and Matt Evans took the pass to sprint over for the game’s first try. Skipper and fullback Nathan Hirayama converted for a 7-0 lead.
Scotland responded well and after a couple of missed kicks at goal, centre Stephen McColl helped get his team back in the game when he picked off a stray Canadian pass in his own 22. The cover got to him just shy of the line but the big centre had enough strength to touch down in the corner.
Scoring opportunities were scarce thereafter, although Scotland centre Paul Loudon was denied by the corner flag and the normally reliable Hirayama missed two penalties as Canada went into the break with a 7-5 lead.
The second period continued in much the same vein, although conditions were much improved. Canada were unable to take advantage of a numerical advantage when replacement Scotland scrum half Ross Samson was sin-binned but Hirayama eventually extended the lead with a penalty.
With the Canadian pack seemingly in control, Scotland looked dead and buried but, with time ticking away, Canada lost control of a scrum near their own line and Samson atoned for his earlier indiscretion to pounce for the equalising score to take the game into extra time.
Conditions worsened but as a kicking shootout beckoned, replacement Jamie Murray scampered over from a scrum and to ensure the Scots emerged victorious.
Canada Coach Tim Murdy commented on his side’s loss:Â “I’m obviously very disappointed for the boys. We had a real opportunity to crack the top 10 in the world but couldn’t quite do it. To lose in the second period of extra time is tough but credit to Scotland, they scored a good try.”
Scotland’s Ruaridh Jackson said: “We pretty much ground out the win. We didn’t play anywhere near as well as we wanted to. They came out strongly, took an early lead and we struggled to get into it. But we’ve another play-off game and we’re aiming to improve.”
Whilst teammate Lewis Calder added: “Full credit to Canada, they stuck at it. It was probably tougher than we thought it was going to be. We have to look at ourselves and ask why we didn’t perform as we should have done. We needed to take the game by the scruff of the neck and we didn’t.”
