England 59 Canada 20

In a stirring eight try victory 59-20 over Canada, England shook off the "A" team moniker, led by a 29 point performance by flyhalf David Walder, who scored a pair of second half tries, five conversions and three penalties, in just his second Test.

The ten straight wins on the hop equal England's best ever record in 130 years of international rugby and a win against the USA next week will break that best set in 1982-86 and again in 1994-5.

Fly-half David Walder, who had a shaky debut in England's 22-10 win over Canada a week ago, put in a sterling 29 point performance, including two tries, five conversions and three penalties.

Walder admits he never had such a huge effort stored in the back of his mind as a possibility, but he did want to restore England manager Clive Woodwards faith with a strong follow up performance.

"I just knew I had to play better than I did last week," the young Newcastle player said candidly.  "Last week I let myself down -- this week I played a lot better."

Walder scored two huge tries within the space of 90 seconds that broke the Canadian resolve, and he admits it was suprising to have them come in such rapid succession.

"It was a bit strange really,"he chuckled.  "I was just getting over the first one and then I was back again.  It was really nice to score and the whole team performance was amazing today."

He says despite the early scores Canada were making a hard effort in the first half hour, but he credits his forwards for digging in.

"Our forwards did really well to get on top of that," Walder said.  "There were a number of turnovers and we started to find the gaps and that made all the difference."

A normally staid Clive Woodward was beaming following the near record performance, and credited his whole coaching staff, and the young team for the huge win.

"I've been delighted with John Wells, Ellery Hanley.  Brian Ashton is someone I would always have next to me in a coaching situation," said Woodward.

Things did not start well for Canada, as almost from the opening kick-off Rod Snow was given a penalty for shoulder charging wing England wing David Rees.  England went for the lineout, and from the resulting maul second row Simon Shaw, trundled over from 5 metres for an unconverted try.

Ross got Canada on the board a moment later for a 5-3 scoreline.

From that restart it was a Michael Stephenson chip through that got by Scott Stewart, and the Canadian flyhalf was penalised for nudging the England wing on the way to the tryline.  Referee Joel Jutge awarded a penalty try and with a David Walder conversion England were ahead 12-3 with the game barely give minutes old.

Walder added to the England lead with a penalty when Canada was called for being offside, and then not retreating ten metres.

Dan Baugh showed Canada was still alive when from a Morgan Williams quick tap found the Cardiff flanker blazing into space for a hard 25 metre run.  It all came to an end with a Canadian knock on a moment later, but it was an emotional lift for the team.

Ross added his second penalty at the 19 minute mark and England held a 15-6 lead.

Walder missed a second attempt, showing much the same form as on his debut a week ago.

On the half hour Canada were called for offside and Walder kicked to touch.  From the ensuing lineout a rolling maul to England to the Canadian five where prop Julian White showed liberal boot work on Rod Snow.  A moment later Dan Baugh waded in with a number of punches on White, and the duo received a pair of sinbins.

England were awarded the penalty and Walder made no mistake from 8 metres and England led 18-6.

Walder showed some pace making a 40 minute break before second row John Tait wrestled him to the ground at the Canadian 22.  Morgan Williams was called for a professional foul and Canada were down to 13 on 14, and Walder made good on the penalty kick -- 21-6 after 35 minutes.

Canada showed remarkable resolve while shorthanded, making tackle after tackle and stymying the English attack.

In injury time Michael Stephenson made a huge break chipped ahead an narrowly missed a try, knocking on in-goal and Canada had a scrum at their own five metre line.

England got control of the ball from an ensuing Canadian penalty, replacment scrum-half Martyn Wood took the quick tap, and number 8 Joe Worsley bounced over from 5 metres.  Walder converted and England hold a commanding 28-6 lead at the half.

From the restart England threatened with the Tiger's Lewis Moody finding a gap and finally being tackled by Leicester teammate Winston Stanley.  Leon Lloyd kicked just too far, and Canada restarted with a 22 metre dropout.  Stephenson attacked and was tackled at the Canadian 15 metre line, Walder recycled and sent Shaw over for his second try of the day, and England had added another score with half only a minute old.  Walder missed the touchline conversion and England led 33-6.

Canada got an indirect penalty a moment later when Dorian West was called for having his foot up and the ball worked to the outside where Sean Fauth sped for the line and was caught just five metres short, with the ball going into touch.

England continued to dominate in open play, exposing the Canadian defense on a number of occasions, but knock-ons, and small errors stopped a number of good efforts from netting further points.

At 60 minutes Canada had an opportunity lost when John Tait kicked through on a loose ball and Julian White

Canada was awarded a penalty at the England five metre line, and the quick tap by Morgan Williams, followed by two recycling phases finally found the previously bannished Baugh away for a one metre try.  Ross converted and the England lead was twenty points -- 33-13.

In the 68th minute Walder gathered a head of steam, finding a hole from 22 metres, and with one move was away under the posts with a self-converted try, and England were well away at 40-13.

A moment later, he decided to do it again, this time from 40 metres and the rout was on -- with the conversion making the score 47-13.

The pressure continued, with Noon popping over two minutes later under the posts for a converted try, the third in three minutes and the Canadian confidence was in shreds with a 54-13 scoreline.

Canada kept England off the board for some ten minutes before Martyn Wood found a gap from in close to stretch the lead to 59-13, after Walder missed the conversion after 75 minutes.

Sean Fauth redeemed the Canadian effort with a strong try from a Nik Witkowski pass in the 78th minute, and with a tough touchline conversion by Ross England led 59-20.

Canada made a couple of late charges, but England stopped them from finding the line, and full time gave England it's third victory of the North America tour.

The Teams:

England:  1 Graham Rowntree, 2 Dorian West, 3 Julian White, 4 Ben Kay, 5 Simon Shaw, 6 Lewis Moody, 7 Steve White-Cooper, 8 Joe Worsley, 9 Kyran Bracken, 10 David Walder, 11 Paul Sampson, 12 Leon Lloyd, 13 Jamie Noon, 14 Michael Stephenson, 15 Josh Lewsey
Reserves:  Alex King, Mark Regan, Tim Stimpson, Martyn Wood, Steve Borthwick, David Flatman, Pat Sanderson

Canada:  1 Rod Snow, 2 Dale Burleigh, 3 John Thiel, 4 Alan Charron, 5 John Tait, 6 Dan Baugh, 7 Gregor Dixon, 8 Ryan Banks, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Scott Stewart, 11 Sean Fauth, 12 John Cannon, 13 Bobby Ross, 14 Nik Witkowski, 15 Winston Stanley
Reserves:  Ed Knaggs, Duane Major, Mike Schmid

Attendance:  10000
Referee:  Jutge j.
Touch Judges:  Andy Turner (South Africa), Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)

Points Scorers:

England
Tries:  Shaw S.D. 2, Worsley J.P.R. 1, Wood M.B. 1, Noon J. 1, Walder D.J.H. 2, Penalty Try 1
Conv:  Walder D.J.H. 5
Pen K.:  Walder D.J.H. 3

Canada
Tries:  Baugh D.R. 1, Fauth S. 1
Conv:  Ross R.P. 2
Pen K.:  Ross R.P. 2