Wales 34-13 Canada
Canada tougher than Wales expected
PA Sport
November 14, 2008
James Hook of Wales receives medical treatment from physio Mark Davies, but has to be substituted due to ihis injury during the Rugby Union International match between Wales and Canada at the Millennium Stadium on November 14, 2008 in Cardiff, Wales.
Wales fly-half James Hook was forced out of the game with a knee injury © Getty Images
Enlarge

Wales hope James Hook will be fit to face New Zealand on Saturday week despite limping off with a knee tendon injury in the 34-13 victory over Canada at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The Ospreys fly-half will have a precautionary scan on the right knee, which forced him off the field after only 19 minutes. After the game, Wales coach Warren Gatland said he was not too concerned with Hook's fitness for the All Blacks clash.

"He took a bit of a knock on the knee, and he'll have a scan, but he's hoping he will be okay," said Gatland, who had mixed views of Wales's five-tries-to-one victory. "I was pleased with the victory, but not so pleased with the performance. There were a lot of turnovers - 30 in all compared to 19 last week (in the 20-15 defeat to South Africa). So we were not happy with that.

"From our point of view, I don't think we respected the ball enough. We probably tried to force too many passes, and our skill level let us down. They were lyrical balls we were trying to give. There were some pretty inexperienced players out there, and it was good to see them come through.

"The fact that we scored five tries, and the one we conceded was an intercept, we will settle for a win. We weren't happy at the number of turnovers, but we will put that behind us and prepare for the All Blacks."

Despite the stop-start performance, Gatland believes there were some stand-out displays by individuals against Canada to give him some selection headaches ahead of the New Zealand match. "We scrummaged pretty well, and I thought John Yapp had a pretty good game. It was great to see Leigh Halfpenny score a couple of tries. He looked dangerous," added Gatland.

"Andy Powell gave us a bit of go-forward, and gave us a bit of creativity, which we lacked in the first half."

Wales captain Ryan Jones said: "I think the guys who stepped in did well, and some of the guys we haven't seen for a while played superbly."

Dafydd Jones, who was part of a dominant Wales pack that earned two penalty tries, said Canada presented a tougher proposition than the Welsh camp had expected following the tourists' 55-0 hammering at the hands of Ireland last Saturday.

"We knew they were going to be a hard team to break down, but they were harder than we thought," said the blind-side flanker. "They came here and made it really tough. The wingers kept us in the game, to be fair.

"We tried to play but we turned the ball over, gave penalties away and brought their backs into the game. They picked the game up and generally made it tough. We were our own worst enemy. We kept losing ball and you can't do that, whoever you're playing."

Winger Mark Jones admitted a much-changed Wales struggled for fluency in the match, but denied it had anything to do with a belief that Warren Gatland's first-choice XV was already decided.

"We made it difficult for ourselves at times, he said. "They were like a wounded animal at times because they wanted to show they were a better side than they showed against Ireland. They did that. But the coaches made it clear that the places were up for grabs tonight. There was no lack of effort but perhaps a lack of execution."

© Scrum.com

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.