All eyes will be on Salt Lake City over the next eight days as four of the best teams in the women’s game come together to compete in the second edition of the Women’s Rugby Super Series from 1-9 July.
Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 winners England and Women's Six Nations champions France have flown over to North America to meet USA and Canada in what promises to be a hugely competitive round-robin tournament, played out over three match days.
The first match of the tournament is a re-run of the Women's Rugby World Cup 2014 final as Canada take on an England side who will start as marginal favourites in the absence of last year’s champions New Zealand.
Only a handful of players named in the starting line-ups for this Women's Rugby Super Series encounter at the Regional Athletic Complex were involved in that final, many involved with their respective sevens team bidding to earn a place at Rio 2016, but that gives other a chance to shine.
“It's always good to have experience on the roster but in the end, what matters is what they do on the field and how they work hard to make the team successful,” admitted Canada coach Francois Ratier. “No player can ‘rest on their laurels.’”
Canada would have overturned their 21-9 defeat to England in that WRWC 2014 final at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris in last year’s Super Series had Andrea Burk (main picture) not missed a last-minute penalty. Instead they fell to a 15-14 loss which meant they finished bottom of the standings with England runners-up behind the all-conquering Black Ferns.
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Canada’s only wins against England came in back-to-back tests in the summer of 2013, at the Women’s Nations Cup – a forerunner to the Super Series. England have won 20 times since the first test between the two nations in 1993 and there has been one draw, 13-13 in the pool stages of WRWC 2014.
“We are looking forward to getting the first game underway," admitted England lead coach Scott Bernand. "Canada will provide us with some tough opposition, as will France and the USA next week, but that is what we came for and what we need if we are going to develop and improve as a side.”
Defeat to Canada for only the third time in their history would cost England second place in the World Rugby Rankings, with France the beneficiaries, unless Les Bleues suffer a heavy loss to the USA in the second game of Saturday’s double-header.
A record win for Canada by more than 15 points would see them close the gap on England to just sixth hundredths of a rating point as well as taking them up to fourth place in the rankings above Ireland.
Canada would be replaced by USA in fifth, however, if they are beaten and the Women’s Eagles manage to upset the odds against Les Bleues. USA have only won one of their eight previous meetings with France, although the last three encounters have all been tight with no more than six points between the sides.
France, who travel to the States with the bulk of their Six Nations-winning squad intact, cannot be caught for third place in the rankings even in defeat.
This will be the first match for the Women's Eagles since last year's tournament and coach Pete Steinberg knows it will be a learning curve for his players.
"We come in as underdogs in this series," Steinberg admitted. "We have three of the top four teams at the World Cup and our opponent, France, has had five games this year and were Six Nations champions. The NASC (National All-Star Competitions) has certainly helped bridge the game between the domestic competition and the international game for the players, but we know that, as this is our first game for a year, the team will need to grow through this competition.
"The competition for places has been good, and it is great to see so many players from last year continue to develop and come back stronger and better. There are always combined outcomes for selection for the Women's Eagles. We have to balance our competitive desire to win games with the need to give new players experience."