Taine Basham came off the bench to score twice on his debut to help reigning Guinness Six Nations champions Wales thrash Canada 68-12 as fans returned to Principality Stadium.
Wales scored ten tries in a game they dominated from the start, but there was one downside to the match as full-back Leigh Halfpenny sustained a nasty-looking knee injury.
Halfpenny was forced off the field after two minutes due to a knee injury sustained whilst stepping a Canadian player and Wales looked lost after he was stretchered off as Canada opened the scoring.
Kainoa Lloyd touched down in the corner after a period of sustained Canadian pressure which created space out wide for the speedy winger to score.
The conversion was missed and Wales struck back minutes later as Tomos Williams tapped and went quickly from a penalty, taking advantage of some unfocused Canadian defence to score a converted try.
OUTSTANDING OFFLOADS
Wales got their second through James Botham after Jonathan Davies made a superb offload in the tackle to give the flanker a clear charge to the try line.
Nick Tompkins then produced a sublime offload of his own as Wales scored their third through Jonah Holmes.
Wales went 26-5 ahead after Nicky Smith picked and went from the back of a ruck before Elliot Dee got a try when he barged over the whitewash from five metres, having been stood at first receiver.
That became 40-5 by half-time when Will Rowlands hit a great line to run onto a pass from Williams and burst through a gap to score.
BASHAM’S DREAM DEBUT
After half-time, lovely offload work by Tompkins put Williams away for his second try of the afternoon before Basham finished superbly to evade two defenders and score his first try for Wales in the corner.
Basham got his second shortly after from the back of a lineout drive, however, Canada finally had something to smile about after Cooper Coats hit a hard line to burst through the Welsh defensive line to score the Canadians’ second try.
Then, in the last play of the game, Ben Tomas looped a floated pass out to Holmes who scored his second of the game to finish things off.
WHAT THEY SAID
Wales captain Jonathan Davies said: “It was blowing in the first half, we played at a good tempo, we put some good things out there.
“Lots to work on as well but it was a great occasion for the boys who had their first caps, and it was a good start to the series.
“We asked each other to step up to the mark of Test match rugby and the new caps did, it was a great effort by the boys but next week will be a proper Test and I’m looking forward to the test of Argentina
“Canada were extremely physical, they tested us at the breakdown, and it’ll probably be more of the same from Argentina next week, they’re a great team.
“I’m not sure of the extent of Leigh Halfpenny’s injury, I’m hoping he has a speedy recovery as it’s never nice to see anyone down but especially not a good friend like Leigh, he deserved better.”
