Wales - 41 Canada - 10 Wales wore their white change strip in compiling a score familiar to England but there the comparisons ended as Canada, a shadow of the side so competitive in the 1991 and 1995 World Cups, showed just how far the developing nations have fallen back in the professional era.
Wales, apart from flashes of brilliance by the centre Iestyn Harris, were uninspired but Canada were so pedestrian and predictable that the Welsh were able to survive two yellow cards and romp home without suggesting they would be worthy quarter-finalists.
The International Rugby Board may express its fervent desire that 10 countries are capable of winning the Webb Ellis trophy come the 2007 finals but the evidence of the opening weekend of this tournament suggests otherwise. A common theme of the first round of matches has been the inability of the emerging countries to make anything of their possession. Since 1999 all the professional unions have hired defence coaches and the likes of Canada, closed down quickly, lose their shape too easily and have to resort to kicking the ball aimlessly away.
Added to that is a weakness in retaining possession in contact, making them vulnerable to counterattacks. Three of Wales's five tries yesterday came from turnover possession.
"We need to play the top nations more," said Canada's coach David Clark. "The pressure in this tournament is greater than we are used to and the stakes are high. The gap between the big and small nations is getting bigger and the IRB has to come up with an answer."
Canada made their mark in the early 1990s by having a pack which was able to retain possession and make dents in defences, supplemented by the boot of outside-half Gareth Rees, but they have few strengths now, merely a willingness to compete.
They believed they could pick up at least a losing bonus point against Wales but, apart from a bright opening when they took the lead with a Bobby Ross drop-goal, they could not impose themselves on the game and had no answer to Harris's invention.
Wales's first try of five came on 17 minutes after Canada had failed to secure their lineout throw on halfway, and their last, like their fourth, followed a turnover.
Canada face New Zealand in Melbourne on Friday and will do well to keep the score below 100 points. "Nobody will touch the All Blacks in this group and Wales will certainly not beat them," said Clark.
The Canada captain Al Charron, who played despite knee surgery four months ago, was almost in tears afterwards as he faced up to the fact that his playing career was virtually at an end. "I was not happy with my game," he said. "I give it everything I have but it is getting to the stage where it is not enough and I have to question my role in the team."
There are many questions for Wales still to answer and their discipline was poor, with Colin Charvis and Sonny Parker sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle and a professional foul respectively.
They were at their most dangerous when Harris was at inside-centre and he was less effective when he moved to outside-half. "The management team always felt that Iestyn was waiting for the World Cup to turn it on and he showed us glimpses of his potential," said coach Steve Hansen.
Wales got the start they needed but the real tests are still to come, with the prospect of England looming in the quarter-finals if they defeat Italy in a fortnight.
WALES: Morgan; M Jones, Parker, Harris, Thomas; Sweeney (Taylor, 65), Cooper (Peel, 65); Duncan Jones (Jenkins, 79), McBryde (Bennett, 59), Jenkins (A Jones, 59), Cockbain (Sidoli, 52), Llewellyn, Dafydd Jones, Williams, Charvis (capt).
Yellow cards: Charvis, 8; Parker, 72
CANADA: Pritchard; Stanley, Cannon, Di Girolamo, Lougheed; Ross (Smith, 60), Williams; Snow (Tkachuk, 59), Lawson, Thiel, Yukes, James, Charron (capt; Cudmore, 59), Van Staveren, Jackson.
Referee: C White (England).
