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Wales 34-13 Canada
Wales wait on Hook
PA Sport
November 15, 2008
Hook receives treatment after suffering the injury in last night's game against Canada
© Getty Images
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Wales are hopeful James Hook will not become the latest injury absentee of their autumn Test series. The Ospreys fly-half is set to undergo a scan after limping off with knee tendon trouble during last night's unimpressive 34-13 victory over Canada. Hook lasted just 18 minutes of an error-strewn Millennium Stadium encounter, making his premature exit just eight days before the reigning Six Nation champions host New Zealand. Wales head coach Warren Gatland has already lost centre Gavin Henson, prop Duncan Jones and probably hooker Huw Bennett from the remaining November clashes with the All Blacks and Australia. If fit, Hook could feature in the starting line-up next weekend when Wales target a first win against New Zealand since 1953. "He took a bit of a knock on the knee," said Gatland. "He will have a scan, but he is hoping he will be okay." Hook was replaced by his Ospreys colleague Dan Biggar, who made a Test debut along with Scarlets scrum-half Martin Roberts and Sale Sharks prop Eifion Lewis-Roberts, but 19-year-old Cardiff Blues wing Leigh Halfpenny was Wales' most impressive performer. Halfpenny, despite pressure from the vastly more experienced Mark Jones, will surely keep his place next Saturday after scoring two of Wales' five tries. Gatland added: "It was great to see Leigh score a couple of tries - he looked dangerous." At the other end of the scale though, was another strangely-subdued performance from Wales skipper Ryan Jones, who was substituted just 10 minutes into the second-half. Gatland said: "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. 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." Wales' overwhelming scrum dominance resulted in Australian referee Stuart Dickinson awarding them two penalty tries, while full-back Morgan Stoddart also touched down, with Biggar booting three conversions and a penalty. Canada though, gave Wales some testing times, despite lying eight places below them in the International Rugby Board world rankings and suffering a 55-0 defeat against Ireland just six days previously. "I think we put some pride back into the Canada jersey," said Canucks coach Kieran Crowley. "I was very pleased and impressed with the heart we showed. When you look at the game, we conceded two penalty tries, a try right on half-time and another right on full-time, so you take those last two out of it and I thought our defence was outstanding." © Scrum.com
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