An Ireland side depleted by the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia brought Canada to earth with a thud on Saturday with a 40-14 Test triumph in Toronto.

Canada came into the contest riding high after victories over Tonga, Fiji, the United States and Russia.

Ireland, in contrast, were without many of their biggest stars.

Nevertheless, the eighth-ranked team in the world lived up to their favourites’ billing, breaking open the contest in the second half after taking a 12-9 lead into the interval.

Fergus McFadden scored three tries for Ireland, who also had tries from Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble and Tommy O’Donnell.

Before a crowd of 20,396 – a record for rugby in Canada – the hosts put the first points on the board with James Pritchard’s penalty six minutes into the contest.

Ireland responded quickly, with Ian Madigan launching the move that ended with a try by Trimble and Madigan adding the conversion.

Pritchard converted two penalties, putting the hosts back in front and overtaking former Canada international Gareth Rees as the country’s all-time leading scorer.

Pritchard has scored 494 points in his international career.

A try from McFadden put Ireland back in front at the break, and, after Tyler Ardron drove over to score a try for Canada early in the second half, things unravelled for Canada as Ireland scored 28 unanswered points.

“It got a little away from us there,” said Canadian captain Aaron Carpenter.

“It was unlucky for us but I thought we were in there until the end.”