Paul's patience pays dividends as reserves put Canadians to the sword

Canada 7 England A 43

England A set the tone early on in their 43-7 win over Canada in the first game of the inaugural tri-nation Churchill Cup at Thunderbird Stadium.

The announcer had not even finished reading the starting members of the two teams when England were awarded a penalty try following an obstruction offence less than a minute into the game.

Rebounding from the poor start, Canada got their only try of the game five minutes later on a play started and finished by the scrum-half Morgan Williams, who went over at the posts for a score converted by Bob Ross. However, then came the English onslaught, with two converted tries, two penalties by Walder and an unconverted try to end the first half 21-7.

The tourists continued to stretch their lead in the second half, adding 22 more points on three unconverted tries and in dying minutes of the game a try by Matthew Cairns was converted by David Flatman.

The other try scorers for England were the captain Hugh Vyvyan, the hooker Andy Titterrell, the scrum-half Martyn Wood, the centre Fraser Waters and the wing Mark Cueto.

"It was just being patient on defence, waiting for the opposition to run out of ideas, and look to move the ball and do something effective with it," the England centre Henry Paul said.

"We have shown here that there are players who are really pushing to make it into the senior squad."

Despite the defeat, the Canadian prop Kevin Tkachuk said the game was the starting point on the road to the World Cup. "Hopefully, we can learn from this game and take the stuff we learn into Wednesday [against the United States] and if we succeed, we will have another crack at England."

Tkachuk also said Canada would have to cut down on their mistakes and improve their defence if they earn a rematch against England. "Numerous times in the game we put good phases together and then we would turn it over or take a penalty. They are such a good team at counter-attacking that the next thing you know the ball is down in our end. We've got a couple of days now to work on those mistakes."

Canada: Try M Williams; Conversion Ross. England A: Tries Scarbrough, Cueto, Waters, Wood, Titterell, Horak; Conversions Walder, Flatman; Penalties Walder 3.

CANADA: Fyffe; Moonlight, Witkowski, Cannon, Stanley; Ross (Smith), M Williams; Tkachuk (Plater), Lawson (Riordan), Cooke (Wirachowski), Johnstone, Knaggs (Carlson), Cudmore (Yukes), Van Staveren, Banks.

ENGLAND A: Scarbrough (Leeds); Cueto (Sale), Waters (Wasps), Paul (Gloucester), Christophers (Leeds); Walder (Newcastle), Wood (Wasps); Sheridan, Titterell (both Sale), Green (Wasps), Brown (Gloucester), Codling (Saracens), Anglesea (Sale), Hyde (Leeds), Vyvyan (Newcastle, capt). Replacements: N Hatley (London Irish) for Green; Walshe (Sale) for Wood; Cairns (Sale) for Titterrell; Flatman (Saracens) for Sheridan; Barkley (Bath) for Walder; Jones (Sale) for Anglesea; Horak (London Irish) for Scarbrough.

Referee: K McCaslin (United States).