Ruddock hails young tourists

Wales coach Mike Ruddock praised a job well done by his team following an emphatic 60-3 victory over Canada in Toronto on Saturday.

The victory was Wales' eighth in a row during an historic season and came just seven days after an equally impressive 77-3 success over USA.

Ruddock could only enthuse over the success of his North American tour that included first international appearances for seven young players.

"We have to be delighted with the way things went against Canada and in general during the tour," he said.

"Our objective was to win both games and blood a lot of new players and we have achieved both of those goals.

"Canada put us under a lot of pressure early on. We expected a physical battle and a hard grind up front and that's exactly what we got.

"They were very aggressive in defence and around the tackle area and that made life hard. We also turned over a lot of ball so there was plenty to work on.

"But when things gelled in the second half I thought our quality shone through at the end. Combinations started to work and we scored some great tries.

"Most importantly we saw two more young men win their first caps. Chris Czekaj did very well to take his try and will remember his first appearance at international level for a long time.

"Matthew Jones came off the bench and had an immediate impact playing his part in our eighth try.

"What was very encouraging from a defence point of view was that we did not concede a try against Canada or against America last week. It shows that the systems we are putting into place are working."