Six Nations champions France battled past their hosts USA 19-13, but it was Canada who stole the show on day one of the Women’s Rugby Super Series 2016 with a seven-try, 52-17 defeat of world champions England on Friday.
With Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 little more than a year away, the Women’s Rugby Super Series is an important step in the preparations of all four nations and Canada certainly came out firing in what was a repeat of the WRWC 2014 final with England.
It was a fitting display to mark Canada Day with seven tries scored, five of them in the first half as Canada left the world champions stunned and trailing 39-0 at the Regional Athletic Complex in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Scrum-half Chelsea Guthrie opened the scoring with her first test try in the third minute after her fellow half-back Emily Belchos had sliced through the English defence and, after an Andrea Burk penalty, she was followed over the line by flanker Barbara Melvin.
Guthrie was held up over the line before hooker Mary-Jane Kirby powered over from a five-metre scrum and Canada had their fourth try by the half-hour mark through Belchos. A yellow card for Harriet Millar-Mills reduced England to 14 and Canada pounced with a fifth, through full-back Julianne Zussman after a great break from Alex Tessier.
Zussman crossed for her second try within four minutes of the restart to make it 44-0 to Canada and while England responded with tries from full-back Katie Mason, centre Millie Wood and replacement Bianca Blackburn, the final say fittingly belonged to the Canadians with a first test try for replacement Katie McNally.
Changes to World Rankings
“It’s a really strong start to our campaign,” insisted interim head coach Shaun Allen, who assumed control on the eve of the tournament after Francois Ratier had to leave for personal reasons. “Our group is really happy to put in this performance on Canada Day. It was great to go out, score points, defend well, and we can now really build for the rest of the tournament.”
England lead coach Scott Bemand was understandably disappointed by the defeat. “We came up against a very strong Canada side today with some outstanding athletes. We didn’t adapt to the environment well enough to be competitive. The Canadians played with a physicality and intensity that we didn’t match at the start of the game.
The defeat, allied by France’s win over the USA, means that England will fall one place to third in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings when they update at 12:00 UK time on Monday. Canada’s victory means they will climb above Ireland into their highest ranking of fourth. The USA will remain in sixth position, but now less than fifth tenths above Australia.
If the first Super Series match was a one-sided affair, the second was much closer with the Women’s Eagles making the better start and taking the lead through fly-half Kimber Rozier after good breaks by number eight Jordan Gray and prop Hope Rogers had created the opportunity.
It could have got even better for the hosts with second-row Alicia Washington knocking on, but a period of prolonged pressure resulted in Rozier adding a penalty to increase her side’s advantage to 8-0 after 23 minutes.
"We have to be ruthless"
France finished the half strongly but couldn’t find a way through the USA defence, the closest they came when captain Gaëlle Mignot was held up over the line. However, a yellow card for winger Saskia Morgan on the stroke of half-time would prove costly once play resumed.
The Women’s Eagles had weathered the early French storm after the break with captain Stacey Bridges charging 30 metres up field only to lose the ball. From the resultant scrum, replacement Pauline Bourdon ran 50 metres to get the Six Nations champions on the board.
Three minutes later and Les Bleues hit the front for the first time through number eight Romane Menager. Winger Julie Billes was denied a try just after the hour mark by a low pass, but the referee was playing advantage and France made no mistake a second time, a driving maul seeing replacement prop Manon Bigot dot down.
Naya Tapper scored with her first touch to cut the deficit to 19-13, but despite France finishing with 13 players after late yellow cards for Safi N'Diaye and Camille Cabalou the Women's Eagles could not find the winning try in what was their first international on home soil since 2013.
“I think the game was lost on our ability to take the opportunities that we had,” admitted coach Pete Steinberg. “There were moments of the game where we played really well but what we didn't do was take our opportunities, so what we have to do is be ruthless.”
The tournament continues on Tuesday when Canada face neighbours USA and France tackle England at the Regional Athletic Stadium.
Photos: Paul Rudman