South Africa will play Wales in the ninth place play-off on
Sunday after they overcame Kazakhstan and Sweden respectively at
Surrey Sports Park.
SOUTH AFRICA 25-10 KAZAKHSTAN
South Africa have guaranteed themselves at least a two place
improvement in their final tournament ranking after beating
Kazakhstan 25-10 in a hard-fought encounter at Surrey Sports Park
in Guildford on Wednesday.
This is the third victory of the year for South Africa over
the Asian champions and also avenges their loss to Kazakhstan in
the 11th place play-off at the last Women's Rugby World Cup in
Canada four years ago.
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Despite only registering just a solitary penalty in their
three Pool B matches, Kazakhstan's physicality has impressed
all comers and only a superb last ditch tackle by Phumeza Gadu
denied them their first try of the tournament after a typically
robust carry by centre Lyudmila Sherer.
As South Africa scrambled back, Saloma Booysen conceded a
penalty and saw yellow for her trouble, with Aigerym Daurembayeva
then stopped just short of the line as Kazakhstan took a quick tap.
A penalty conceded at the breakdown though allowed South Africa to
relieve the pressure.
The numbers were soon evened up when Svetlana Karatygina
joined Booysen in the sin bin, but although South African full back
Zandile Nojoko couldn't add the resulting penalty, when given a
more central opportunity just minutes later she stroked it between
the uprights to open the scoring.
While there was no shortage of effort from either side, the
first half was a catalogue of errors and fleeting half chances
squandered. That was until the 36th minute when Kazakhstan finally
broke their try scoring duck. Another scorching break by Sherer was
the catalyst before South Africa, down to 14 with Dolly
Mavumengwana in the sin bin, finally succumbed to a passage of
unrelenting Kazakhstan pressure.
After a succession of penalties just metres from the South
African line, Tatyana Tur and Svetlana Klyuchnikova combined from a
scrum in front of the posts to send Irina Amossova over for
Kazakhstan's first try of Women's Rugby World Cup 2010 to
see them take a deserved lead.
They would have little chance to build on their lead,
however, as captain Anna Yakovleva became the next to see yellow,
and on the stroke of half time Kazakhstan were undone by a moment
of magic from Gadu, the South African wing waltzing through the
defence from 65 metres to touch down, with Nojoko's conversion
sending her side in leading 10-5 at half time.
After the break, South Africa were again indebted to Gadu for
another great cover tackle, this time to deny Olga Sazonova, but
early second half Kazakhstan pressure told when Xena Botha saw
yellow and Alfiya Mustafina was driven over to level to scores.
Amossova became the latest to visit the sin bin and it got
worse for Kazakhstan when Amina Baratova became the first player to
receive a red card in the tournament, Nojoko kicking the resulting
penalty to give South Africa a tentative 13-10 lead.
Yet despite their player advantage, South Africa had to wait
until the last five minutes to make certain of only their second
ever World Cup victory when fly half Zenay Jordaan showed great
pace to touch down her own grubber kick.
There was still time, though, for South Africa replacement
Cherne Roberts to dive over in the corner to add gloss to a
scoreline that was harsh on Kazakhstan, who must now regroup to
face Sweden in the 11th place play-off.
POST MATCH REACTION
South Africa coach Denver Wannies: "I thought
we put ourselves under unnecessary pressure, not sticking to the
plan and the structure initially, but in the end we were able to
see it through, put our game together that we said we wanted to
play, just happy to have gotten that one under the belt as
well.
It does an awful lot for the confidence of the players and the
temperament, even though at this stage they are a marvellous bunch
to have together and even under the pressures that we were in terms
of not getting the desired results, they were able to maintain
composure and stuck in there and hence able to pull off a very good
win under very tight conditions."
South Africa captain Lorinda Brown: "I think
it was a tough game today. I think we were worth the win and we
want to keep on winning. We will look at the video to correct our
mistakes."
On wing Phumeza Gadu's performance: "She's
the speedster. She's the one that keeps getting us out of
trouble. Today she was putting her body on the line. She has a
future in this sport."
Kazakhstan vice captain Anastassiya Khamova:
"I am very disappointed with the result and we apologise to
our fans. The two tries were excellent but it should have brought a
victory. We should have won from them and it's a shame that we
didn't. We should have put more points on the board in the
first half."
"Eleventh place was not our dream but we hope to win the
match."
WALES 32-10 SWEDEN
By Nathaniel John
Wales will play in the ninth place play-off at Women's
Rugby World Cup 2010 after beating Sweden 32-10 to record their
first victory of the tournament.
Tries from Caryl James, Sioned Harries (2), Laura Prosser and
co-captains Mellissa Berry and Jamie Kift were enough to seal the
win at a beautifully sunny Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.
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Both sides started the match tentatively, Welsh attacks often
came to an end as a result of handling errors, while Sweden's
strong counter-rucking was undermined by their persistent offsides
in defence.
With a quarter of an hour played, Sweden found themselves
down to 14 with prop Jenny Ohman in the sin bin for not rolling
away from the breakdown and Wales soon took the lead through wing
James after a spell of pressure in the Swedish 22.
After an initial break from prop Catrin Edwards, the ball was
recycled for several phases before scrum half Amy Day found James
out wide for the wing to touch down in the corner for a 5-0 lead.
Things went from bad to worse for Sweden when they were
momentarily reduced to 13 players following a second yellow card,
this time for second row Sofi Bjorkman.
On the half hour mark, Wales scored another try through
second row Sioned Harries after Wales controlled a series of
five-metre scrums due to their numerical advantage. The ball was
then recycled for a phase before coming to Harries who crashed over
to increase the advantage to 10-0.
Five minutes later, and with Sweden back to their full
complement of players, Lina Norman stepped up while regular kicker
and captain Ulrika Andersson-Hall was receiving treatment to slot a
25-metre penalty to bring her side back into contention.
However, with the last play of the half, Wales number 8 Berry
scored her side's third try of the afternoon after a good break
from hooker Rhian Bowden, bringing the score to 17-3 at the
interval.
Wales began the second half in the same manner as they ended
the first with another try when, following a scrum, their backs
broke blind and wing Mared Evans neatly offloaded to Sioned Harries
for her second try.
Sweden responded 15 minutes into the second half with a
well-taken try from wing Charlotta Westin-Vines, who managed to
beat four Welsh defenders on her route to the tryline to cut the
deficit to 24-10.
Five minutes from time, Wales all but sealed victory with
their fifth try cleverly engineered by replacement Prosser, the
scrum half dummying a pass from the back of a ruck and then dived
through a hole in the Swedish defence to score.
With the last play of the game Wales scored their final try
of the day through captain Kift when Berry picked up from the base
of a scrum before offloading to the on-rushing flanker, who crashed
over the line for a final score of 34-10.
Wales now face South Africa in the ninth place play-off on
Sunday, while Sweden will play Kazakhstan in the 11th place
play-off with both sides still seeking a first victory of
Women's Rugby World Cup 2010.
POST MATCH REACTION
Wales coach Jason Lewis: "It's nice to win
(a first game), of course it is, but as a coach you're never
happy, that's the nature of the job. We did make slightly hard
work of it but a win is a win. We missed the tempo we needed in the
game to play our game but, that said, we were still a bit too
strong for them."
On a rematch with South Africa: "We owe them one. We realise that we under-performed when we played them last time and the girls will be chomping at the bit to get out there and go at them. It will be a great match and I'm sure they'll be looking to do the same against us as they did in the pool games, but our girls will be very much up for that game."
Wales captain Jamie Kift: "It's always an
honour to play for Wales, leave alone lead them. It's been a
long time coming our first win but we're there now and we move
forward for that ninth place."
On the rematch with South Africa: "We were
disappointed with that game, we thought it was one that we could
have and should have won. So we're going to move forward now
and prove a few people wrong."
Sweden coach Jonas Ahl: "Sometimes you win,
sometimes you lose. We've slipped into the habit of losing so
we have to try and turn this around and go from here. This game we
started to clean out as we should do and not slow the ball down all
the time. I think we played this game better than any game, quicker
and wider and with all the players working and fighting, but we
didn't quite get there.
"We can't think in terms of 11th and ninth anymore,
we have to think that it's time to get out there and walk off
with a victory and that's what we are here for now. We just
have to pull one off."
Sweden captain Ulrika Andersson-Hall: "Very
disappointed. We gave away too many penalties and we had some
sin-binnings too and it's hard to play them because they're
really quick, they won quick ball and ran around us. There were
some parts of the game we improved on - I think in the clean-outs
and rucks we were better and some parts of the game we showed
patience, but I'm disappointed. I thought we could win it.
"We'll work on the penalty count ahead of
Kazakhstan. I haven't seen them play yet but I believe
they're very physical. It will be another tough day out there
and we will do our best to win it.
"We were hoping for more (than 11th/12th place) coming
into the tournament, especially after the first match, but it is
tough. It's a long tournament and they're physical teams
that we've come up against. We're not the biggest and we
have taken a few knocks, but I'm positive that we can beat
Kazakhstan. We have to go in with that attitude and hope for the
best."
