Big Ben display delights Pivac

Wayne Pivac praised a sensational debut performance from Dragons lock Ben Carter as Wales recorded a big win over Canada.

Wales scored 10 tries in an impressive 68-12 victory over Canada at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.

Dragons have eight players on display with Taine Basham and Jonah Holmes both grabbing a brace of tries while regional team-mates Elliot Dee and Will Rowlands also crossed the whitewash.

And player of the match Carter - on his first Wales appearance – certainly caught the eye with an all-action showing.

“I’m thrilled for Ben,” said Pivac. “It’s the first time he’s played a professional game in front of his family.

“We gave him the extra workload in terms of calling the line-outs, we wanted to put him under pressure, and he did very well. It bodes well for the future.

“There has been a lot of work going on in the last few weeks,” he added. “We were really eager to see how the guys would go and see how they combined.

“It wasn’t the start that anyone wanted, but the reaction to that was good. To have 40 points in the bank by half time means you have to be relatively pleased.

“We knew there would be mistakes and there were. We’ll look at that and pull out the learnings for individuals and for the group as a whole." 

Pivac has now warned his side they will have to step it up against Argentina in Cardiff this coming weekend.

The Pumas – who include Dragons scrum half Gonzalo Bertranou among their ranks - are one of the form sides in world rugby and last year recorded an historic first victory over the All Blacks.

“We didn’t want to go in cold against a side that has drawn twice against Australia and beaten the All Blacks,” said Pivac. “You have to respect any side that can do that.

“Argentina are a serious tier one nation now and for this young team to go up against a side like that is exactly what we need. It will show them how much hard work they need to put in if they want to play at this level on a regular basis.

“There are lots of learnings and there will be a lot more next week. We’ll need to step it up across our whole game really.

“It’s highlighted a few things for us that we’ll go away and work on. We’ll be tested across the board because it’s a step up from a tier two to a tier one nation, obviously.”