Canada scored in the first minute of the match and never looked back on route to a 79-0 defeat over Spain, erasing Thursday’s loss at the hands of New Zealand and giving themselves a great chance of qualifying for the semi finals of the IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup.
Canada wasted no time getting on the board as wing Maria Gallo ran in to score the first of her five tries and give Canada the early 5-0 lead.
In a portent of things to come, she combined with Heather Moyse, who cut through the Spanish defence before offloading to Gallo, who touched down in the corner.
Canada’s Katie Murray’s line out work was fantastic, stealing the ball from Spain on numerous occasions. Spain held tough, but found it difficult to gain any momentum. The Spanish defence held off late in the half many near pushes over tries by holding the ball up in goal. After tries by Katie Murray and Raquel Eldridge, Canada ended the half with a 29-0 lead.
The start of the second half opened up much like the first, after spinning the ball out from the left side of the field through the entire back line, the ball ended up with Gallo, who attacked down the far sideline before off loading to Moyse, who took the ball at full pace before touching down just right of the posts.
Spain put the pressure on Canada deep in their own half, but Canada’s backline stood strong, keeping Spain off the board.
Eight unanswered second half tries from Canada’s Moyse, Kristy Heemskerk, Gallo, and Gillian Florence rounded out the scoring for Canada. Spain never let up and kept working hard until the final whistle blew, but in the end Canada were too strong, and powered back from their disappointing opening day loss to New Zealand.
Quotes
Canada
Head Coach- Neil Langevin
“ The confidence is back up in the players mind. New Zealand was very good but we were still very disappointed, but the girls were resilient and bounced back with the win today.”
Spain
Captain Isabel Rodriguez
“We’ve done the best we could, we knew Canada was stronger. This is new to a lot of us so even if we do not win, we all get to learn from the experience.”