Two second half tries saw England overcome the USA 18-0 in the final IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup encounter of the opening day at Ellerslie Rugby Park in Edmonton, Canada.
England’s first try came on the hour mark through Kim Oliver, the forwards having taken advantage of their opponents being a player down with Kelly McMahon sin-binned shortly after coming on, to create room for their centre to score.
Either side of this score Shelley Rae, who had come on as an early replacement for fly half Karen Andrew, kicked two penalties to give England a 13-0 lead with 13 minutes remaining in the battle of the last two Women’s RWC runners-up.
The USA though refused to surrender and rallied with full back Ashley English coming close to breaking the English defence after some good work by centres Pam Kosanke and Keenya Warner.
However it was England who put the result beyond doubt with a last minute try, a great run by full back Charlotte Barras setting up field position, from where the forwards took over and drove over the line with Rochelle Clark benefiting.
The match though was much closer than the score line suggests with no points put on the board at all in the first half, a result of the great defensive display and controlled aggression both in the tackle and breakdown situation of the two teams.
The second half provided more of the same with defence dominating, but the ability of Rae to kick for territory gave the England pack a strong base on which to build from against the 1998 runners-up.
Some big hits came in from the USA forwards with their back row of Phaidra Knight, Kristin Zdanczewicz and Tina Nesberg performing impressively and the commitment shown by both sides was certainly evident for all to see.
QUOTES
England captain Jo Yapp: “We got off to a slow start, but we were patient, came in at half time and regrouped and came out in the second half and lifted our game. All credit to the USA though; their physicality at the breakdown was awesome.”
USA coach Kathy Flores: “We don’t have a lot of work to do, but we need to go away and reassess, I am very proud of the girls today, and we see ourselves going deep into this tournament and showing that the US are certainly a force in this form of the game of rugby.”
USA player Phaidra Knight: “We knew it would be a very intense, hard fought battle, and we are very pleased with our defence, but we did not take advantage of the ball that we did have.”