Wales made heavy work of an inexperienced Canada side when posting an unconvincing 34-13 win at the Millennium Stadium on Friday.
Two tries from teenager Leigh Halfpenny and two penalty tries followed Morgan Stoddart’s early score to put the Test beyond the visitors.
But a knee injury to James Hook has left Wales coach Warren Gatland with added concern ahead of the final two Tests against Australia and New Zealand, on top of his team’s inability to finish off opponents below them in the world rankings.
PHOTO: AP
Canada were comprehensively beaten 55-0 by Ireland last weekend and the near 60,000 Welsh crowd were expecting a comfortable victory, despite fielding an under-strength side.
Wales made 12 changes to the team that were edged out by world champions South Africa and the new look side got off to a nervy start, allowing Canada to take an early lead after 10 minutes when James Pritchard put his penalty between the posts from close range.
With Wales struggling to find a rhythm, Canada happily stayed on the back foot and absorbed the pressure. Hook pulled a penalty wide after 14 minutes and rounded of a miserable week when he limped from the field five minutes later with a tendon injury to his knee. Hook was replaced by Ospreys’ teammate Dan Biggar, who was making his international debut.
The Canadian resistance was finally broken after 24 minutes when Stoddart squeezed over in the corner just a minute after Halfpenny had been stopped 5m short on the opposite flank. Biggar missed his conversion, meaning a tremendous Pritchard penalty from the halfway line gave Canada a 6-5 lead on the half-hour mark. It took 19-year-old Halfpenny to spare Wales’ blushes, after he wove through the Canadian defense and kept his feet after a heavy tackle to go over. Biggar’s second missed conversion of the evening kept the score at 10-6 going into halftime.
With Gatland’s words no doubt still ringing in their ears, Wales started the second half in lively fashion and Biggar settled his nerves with a penalty to put Wales seven points ahead. However, Wales still lacked the ruthless edge they were missing against South Africa and with Ian Gough looking certain to score, he nudged Richard Hibbard’s pass forwards just a meter from the line.
Gatland brought on Andy Powell to give the Welsh attack more thrust and they turned the screw in the scrums once again, earning a second penalty try as Canada buckled. Biggar’s first conversion of the evening put daylight between the sides at 20-6.
A penalty try and conversion from Biggar looked to have rounded off the win for Wales, before the debutant echoed Hook’s mistake against South Africa and threw a careless pass that was intercepted and run home from 40m by Ryan Smith. The 75th minute try was converted by Pritchard to put the score at 27-13.
Canada continued to threaten as the game drew to a close, but this allowed Halfpenny to run in a blistering counterattack in the final act of the game to make the score-line more comfortable at 34-13.
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