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Canada’s offensive punch proved too much for Spain on Saturday in Madrid, as the visitors won 37-27 in an entertaining rugby international.

After falling behind 17-3 in the game’s first quarter, Canada’s top class backline roared in to action and outpaced the hosts 33-10 over the game’s final hour.

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To paraphrase at least one former Canadian international who was watching from afar: Just imagine if Canada didn’t have DTH van der Merwe and Taylor Paris.

The two Canadian stars each picked up a pair of tries to lead the way, while Brock Staller converted all four and added a trio of penalties as well.

The fourteen-point turnaround marks Canada’s biggest-ever comeback and will surely be one to please new coach Kingsley Jones, who picks up his first win in his second game in charge.

Canada’s strength, as it was a week ago in Tblisi, is obvious: there’s so much talent in the backline. They took the space afforded to them and during a stretch early in the second half where Spain were down a man because of a yellow card, they were deadly, as Paris scored a try off a set-move built from a scrum under the Spanish posts and then van der Merwe scored minutes later, accelerating through a wide open gap in the outside spaces in the Spanish defence.