Warren Gatland is confident that James Hook will be fit to face New Zealand despite limping off in Wales' 34-13 win over Canada.
Wales coach happy with win but critical of performance
Warren Gatland remains confident that James Hook will be fit to face New Zealand despite limping off early in Wales' 34-13 victory over Canada on Friday night.
The Ospreys fly-half will have a precautionary scan on his right knee after damaging a tendon just 19 minutes into the game at the Millennium Stadium.
After the match the coach played down concerns over Hook's ability to participate in Wales' third autumn Test against the All Blacks next Saturday.
"He took a bit of a knock on the knee," said Gatland. "He'll have a scan, but he's hoping he will be okay."
Despite his side running in five tries however, Gatland was less than impressed by the overall performance of his men, pointing to the high number of turnovers as an area of particular weakness.
Inexperienced
"I was pleased with the victory, but not so pleased with the performance," he added.
"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."
Creativity
Gatland though, singled out a number of players whose performances had impressed him and are sure to give him food for thought ahead of his clash with the world's top side.
"We scrummaged pretty well, and I thought John Yapp had a pretty good game," he said.
"It was great to see Leigh Halfpenny score a couple of tries. He looked dangerous.
"Andy Powell gave us a bit of go-forward, and gave us a bit of creativity, which we lacked in the first half."
Skipper Ryan Jones added: "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 however, admitted that Canada had been tougher than the Welsh expected following their 55-0 demolition by Ireland last Saturday.
He said: "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.
"Our scrum went well, but they picked their game up and generally made it tough for us."
