The attention grabbing fixtures on day four of Women's
Rugby World Cup 2010 are undoubtedly the semi finals, which see
defending champions New Zealand take on France first at the
Twickenham Stoop before hosts England tackle Australia.
Both matches will be streamed live on rwcwomens.com - for those
outside the UK and Ireland - New Zealand v France (18:00 local time
/ 05:00 Thursday New Zealand / 19:00 France); England v Australia
(20:15 local time / 05:15 Australia EST Thursday).
However four other fixtures will also take place at Surrey
Sports Park as the race for positions from fifth to 12th hots up
with Canada, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden,
USA and Wales all in action.
VIDEO: SEMI FINAL PREVIEW >>
SEMI FINALS
France will be the latest nation attempting to derail the
Black Ferns' quest for a fourth successive Women's Rugby
World Cup crown when they meet in the first semi final at the
Twickenham Stoop on Wednesday.
New Zealand's proud record now stands at 17 consecutive
victories on the World Cup stage, dating back to a semi final loss
to USA in 1991, and Brian Evans' side will hope to repeat their
40-10 victory over France at the same stage in Canada four years
ago.
The Black Ferns will cut an unsual sight when they run out at
the home of English Premiership side Harlequins as they will be
wearing their changed strip of white jerseys, a fact they insist
will have no impact on their performance.
MATCH PREVIEW: BLACK OR WHITE, THE SILVER FERN
REMAINS >>
The starting line-up certainly has a familiar look to it with
13 changes, four of them positional, from the side that beat Wales
41-8 to top Pool C, including the return of captain Melissa Ruscoe,
joint leading try-scorer Carla Hohepa and half back pairing Emma
Jensen and Anna Richards.
France, by contrast, have made only two changes from the side
that hit form to beat Canada 23-8 in the Pool C decider to seal
their place in the semi finals, as they seek to reach a first ever
World Cup final.
Claire Canal, who has scored three tries in the tournament so
far, moves to flanker to make space for the return of captain
Sandra Rabier at number 8 with France promising they have the game
plan to beat the Black Ferns.
The other semi final brings together two traditional sporting
rivals in hosts England and Australia, both of whom should have
some vocal and enthusiastic support in their corner at the
Twickenham Stoop.
England, the top seeds after the pool stages, will be
desperate to avoid more World Cup heartache at the hands of the
Wallaroos, who beat them in the RWC Sevens quarter finals en route
to being crowned the inaugural women's champions in Dubai last
year.
MATCH PREVIEW: WALLAROOS: THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
FOR US >>
Inspired by that success in the Dubai desert, Australia are
already guaranteed their best ever finish after storming into a
first ever World Cup semi final with a 62-0 defeat of South Africa
to pip Canada to the best pool runner-up spot thanks to Sharni
Williams' try in the dying seconds.
Coach John Manenti has kept faith with the majority of that
starting line-up, making only two changes in the front row with
Danielle Meskell replacing Caroline Vakalahi at prop and Silei
Poluleuligaga coming in for Margaret Watson at hooker.
His England counterpart Gary Street has made five changes,
welcoming back prop Rosemarie Crowley, flanker Heather Fisher,
scrum half Amy Turner, wing Fiona Pocock - one of six players to
have scored four tries in the pool stages - and centre Alice
Richardson to the starting XV.
FIFTH TO EIGHTH
These two play-offs have a familiar look to them with repeat
performances of matches in the pool stages when Canada overwhelmed
Scotland 37-10 in their opening Pool C match and Ireland battled
back from disappointment against England to beat USA 22-12 in Pool
B.
Canada, in particular, will be disappointed to have ended up
in this bracket battling for fifth to eighth places, having gone
into the final round of pool matches sitting atop Pool C only to
lose 23-8 to France and then see Australia snatch the best runner
up spot from them at the death.
Leslie Cripps, the Canadian captain, openly admits a
"medal" was the target coming into the World Cup after
finishing fourth at the last three tournaments, but insists the
focus has already turned to Scotland and making the best out of
their position.
"On the pitch we are definitely thinking of Scotland -
that's what we're focused on and getting to that
fifth-sixth final so we can come fifth in the tournament,"
explained Cripps.
"We're not looking at it from the perspective that
it's for fifth place - it's another test. We are at the
World Cup, we've trained four years for this and it's
another game against another country, so that's what we're
focusing on and you're always going to be up for those games.
"Fifth place is what we have to do and it's for the
future of Canada, for the next World Cup. If that's where we
are then that's where we are and we'll be happy with that,
and we'll come back in four years time looking for a better
spot again."
Canada have made two changes to the side beaten by France,
with Heather Jaques coming into the back row in place of Barbara
Mervin - a try scorer on day one against Scotland - and Cheryl
Phillips replacing Ashley Patzer at full back.
"Watching their game tapes they've got better and
stronger as the games have progressed, just like most teams in the
tournament," added prop Cripps. "So they'll be
feeling confident and obviously they'll be thinking that they
have a second pop at us."
Scotland have made a handful of changes in their backline for
the rematch on Pitch 2, with coach Gary Parker admitting: "It
was great to reach our short-term aim of fifth to eighth place, but
our long-term aim is to be in the top six.
"We showed how we can perform in the second half of the
first pool game against Canada, and we've been building on that
performance. The first 20 minutes of this game will be
massive."
Neville hungry for USA double
USA will be another side hoping to avenge a loss in the pool
stages when they face an Ireland side buoyed by their displays in
the tournament so far, even if they didn't score enough points
against Kazakhstan last time out to realise the dream of a first
ever World Cup semi final.
"I definitely think they're going to be out for our
blood," admitted Irish number 8 Joy Neville, the only forward
among six players currently topping the try-scoring charts with
braces against USA and Kazakhstan.
"I'm sure they weren't very happy about losing
to us. They're going to be a lot more aggressive I feel and I
suppose they're going to try and play a more general movement
type of game, but we'll be prepared for that and hopefully come
out on top.
"I'm looking forward to playing USA again, obviously
it's going to be a massive challenge. There are areas that
they'll want to improve upon and there's certainly areas
that we want to improve upon going into the game, so I definitely
don't see this as an easy game at all.
"One thing we definitely got from the last time we
played USA by beating them is belief, and the confidence to go into
this game with the mentality that we can beat them again. In saying
that, we are not going to be over confident, that's one thing
the Irish aren't."
Ireland have been forced to shift Jo O'Sullivan from
outside centre to fly half following the ankle injury suffered by
Helen Brosnan in the 37-3 defeat of Kazakhstan, while coach Philip
Doyle also making a few other changes, some of them positional.
"It would be a massive achievement [to finish fifth]. My
sole objective of this World Cup was to be placed higher than
eighth in the world and do better than the last World Cup.
Unfortunately the way things worked out we didn't make it into
the semi finals, which was quite disappointing, but we did
everything right as far as we were concerned.
"We beat Kazakhstan by a good margin, but obviously the
semis wasn't there for us, but with fifth place it's
obviously going to be a massive challenge, but it's definitely
doable and we'll be very happy to be placed fifth."
The Women's Eagles have also made changes with coach
Kathy Flores eager to see her charges bounce back from a 37-10 loss
to hosts England, four of them in the forward pack while Emilie
Bydwell and Victoria Folyyan come in as centre and wing
respectively.
NINTH TO 12TH
South Africa are the only one of the four sides in the bottom
bracket of play-offs to have tasted victory at Women's Rugby
World Cup 2010, following their historic first ever win at this
level against Wales on day two.
That victory means South Africa line up against Kazakkhstan,
a side who overwhelmed them 36-0 when the two sides met in the 11th
place play-off at the last World Cup in Canada four years ago.
South Africa, though, have already beaten the Asian champions twice
in 2010, recording their first ever test victories away.
However, South Africa come into the opening match of day four
at Surrey Sports Park not only on the back of a heavy 62-0 defeat
by Australia, but also forced to make several changes because of
injuries to their squad.
Mandisa Williams has failed to recover from the ankle injury
that kept her out of the Wallaroos' match, so centre Lorinda
Brown retains the captaincy, while second row Nolusindiso Booi has
an eye injury and Charmaine Kayser spent a night in hospital after
a head knock against Australia.
"The injuries and forced changes mean that we will have
some new combinations, but I am not too concerned because the
players have been together for a while now and know each
other," said coach Denver Wannies.
"We want to win our two remaining matches."
Kazakhstan have found life hard-going in the tournament,
suffering heavy losses at the hands of the USA, hosts England and
Ireland, conceding 170 points and only score their first points
with a penalty on day three.
Coach Valeriy Popov has made seven changes to his starting
line, including captain Anna Yakovleva moving back to her usual
number 8 from the No.10 jersey against Ireland, and the Asian
champions hope to now be able to show what they are capable of.
"It has been difficult because it was a difficult group,
we had some difficult matches going up against some pretty good
teams, but we hope in the next few matches we can show our true
colours and show some of our real class," vice captain
Anastassiya Khamova said after the Ireland defeat.
"We have learnt a lot in this World Cup, There is a big
difference in standards between here and Kazakhstan and Asia so we
are hoping to play more against people and teams of this standard
and hopefully improve the team."
First win the target
Whoever emerges victorious from the meeting of the only two
sides to have conceded more than a century of points in the pool
stages, will face either Wales or Sweden on the final day of the
tournament on Sunday.
Wales will be disappointed to find themselves in the bottom
bracket after losses to Australia and South Africa, but can at
least draw comfort from the committed display they produced against
New Zealand last time out, particularly in restricting the Black
Ferns to a 17-8 half-time lead.
Coach Jason Lewis makes a number of changes to his starting
line-up as Wales look to salvage a ranking of ninth from the
tournament with victories in their final two matches, but has
suffered a blow with experienced wing Non Evans ruled out with a
knee injury.
Mared Evans replaces Non Evans in a rejigged backline, which
also sees the introduction of Ceri Redman and Adi Taviner as a new
centre pairing with Elinor Snowsill replacing Naomi Thomas at full
back against Sweden.
Sweden will once again look to their inspirational captain
and fly half Ulrika Andersson-Hall for leadership and a creative
spark as they look to banish the disappointment of a 32-5 loss to
Scotland last time out.
Jonas Ahl makes four of his six changes from that loss in the
forward pack with Erica Storckenfeldt, Anna Larsson, Sofi Bjorkman
and Erica Andersson coming into the starting line up to face a
nation that beat them 56-7 in a one-off test last November on Welsh
soil.
