Olympic bobsleigh champion Heather Moyse made a dramatic return
to international rugby by scoring the winning try as Canada beat
their North American rivals USA 14-8 in the first of a two-test
series at Shawnigan Lake in British Columbia on Monday.
The last time Moyse, the leading try scorer at Women's
Rugby World Cup 2006, wore the Canadian jersey she broke her
shoulder in 2008 and began her two-year sabbatical which culminated
in Olympic gold earlier this year as brakeman for Kaillie
Humphries.
The two sides are no strangers to each other, having played a
two-test series on American soil in January, Canada winning the
first encounter 18-8 before the Women's Eagles edged a tight
affair 11-10 four days later.
This latest meeting was equally close with USA playing their
classic style, electing to keep the ball in tight, using their
forwards as much as possible, with Canada countering well in a
match which was fairly conservative by both sides.
Long time away
Both sides made a number of handling errors in the first half
with the Women's Eagles coming the closest to scoring only for
Canada's defence to keep them at bay. Instead it was back row
Kelly Russell's first try for her country which gave the hosts
a 7-0 half-time lead.
The USA created scoring opportunities after the break, but
this time they took it with flanker Phaidra Knight touching down,
Stephanie Bruce missing the conversion but then adding a penalty to
give the visitors an 8-7 advantage.
Canada nearly took the lead again when captain Maria Gallo
was bundled into touch inches short of the line, but just as the
match appeared to heading for another one-point winning margin,
replacement Moyse had other ideas, stepping inside the defence to
score.
"It's a team of girls who have put their faith in me
coming back and that was the biggest reason why I was anxious and
most nervous coming back in this game," admitted Moyse.
"Two years away from the team is a long time. It feels
good to get those first game nerves out of my system and now I can
just concentrate and play rugby because I love it instead of
worrying about all of the other things that are surrounding
it."
Flicking the switch
The two sides meet again on Friday at Bear Mountain Stadium
in Langford, when USA coach Kathy Flores and Knight will both be
hoping to see a lot smaller number in the error count with
Women's Rugby World Cup 2010 little over two months away.
"We're dropping balls that we should be
catching," admitted Flores. "We're not calling the
balls in the air and we're running into each other. Not to take
anything away from Canada, I thought they played well, but I think
the match would have been much different had we been on.
Knight added: "One of our biggest issues at this point
is building our confidence. That's what led to a lot of the
handling errors, which I think were accountable in our loss.
"We have a young team and we have to turn that switch.
It's just one of those things that just happens, but we're
running out of time so we need to make that adjustment relatively
soon and just execute.
"It doesn't really matter who you lose to when you
do, it's just disappointing. Every loss is a springboard to
success and we just have to learn from the mistakes we made today
and correct them."
