In a fierce rematch of Friday’s pool round, the USA met Australia and came out with another victory, 29-12, which sees them go forward to the fifth place play-off match at the IRB Women's Rugby World Cup 2006. Australia will fight for seventh in Saturday’s consolation rounds.
The USA scored two minutes into the match, when flanker Kristin Zdanczewicz unloaded the ball to number 8 Tina Nesberg in contact. Nesburg drove forward and dived over the line to make it 5-0.
Offside penalties from the USA gave the Australian side several attempts at penalty goals, but inside centre Rebecca Anderson’s kicks sailed just wide both times. Repeated infringements from the Australians resulted in number 8, Alexandra Hargreaves getting a yellow card. Capitalizing on the player advantage, the USA picked from the base of the scrum near the Australia line. Nesberg dotted down her second try of the match to send the USA to a 10-0 half time advantage.
The big Australian side continued to use their size advantage to pressure the USA in the second half. Close, fast support kept the Americans on their toes in an increasingly aggressive and physical match. Eight minutes into the second half, the Australians again pressured the USA, but were caught offside.
The USA kicked for touch and passed the ball out wide from the lineout to winger Ellie Karvoski, who ran around the outside to score, making it 15-0. Several minutes later, the US repeated the scenario, getting the ball to Karvoski for her second and third tries of the match. Pam Kosanke’s conversions were successful and the USA led 29-0.
Australia refused to give up and rallied to cross the American line. Applying big pressure, they moved the ball through their back line. Wing Tricia Brown found space in the American defensive line to score near the touch line. Alana Thomas converted the difficult kick, 29-7. The Australians maintained momentum from the score and stole a USA lineout ball. Captain Selena Worsley broke through the line, diving across to make the final score 29-12.
Quotes
US captain Jen Crouse: "It felt like the pieces of the puzzle were coming together at the same time for a large portion of the game. It was a great feeling.
"We just wanted to finish the best way we could finish. Our goal after the third game was to finish fifth. This was the first step on that process."
USA coach Kathy Flores: "Having watched the last match, we knew they took advantage close to the breakdown. They are very good at crashing the ruck. That’s what we concentrated on in our preparations and I think it helped us."
USA player Tina Nesburg: "I feel like I was behind the people who were doing the work. The scrum was pushing forward, everyone else did the hard work. I was lucky."
Australia coach Steve Hamson: "You can train until the cows come home, but you can’t replicate the physicality and the pressure of a test match. We picked 21 new players to come here, all our coaching staff are new. We just picked the
players we thought would step up and I think they have.
"We new the Americans were going to be very physical. They were able to cause a lot of trouble."
Australia captain Selena Worsley: "We knew it was going to be a very physical match. The last game was such a good contest and we were really hoping to come out strong.
"In the last 15 minutes, I said to the girls “15 is what we can do” and we really stepped up to the plate. We need to keep that up the whole game."