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Canada Defeats South Africa 35 – 17: Face France Next
By Cassandra Chin
posted Aug 13 2009
Canada’s much anticipated first game was played against powerhouse South Africa in the fourth match of the Women’s Nations Cup, a five team senior women’s rugby tournament being hosted at Oakville, Ontario’s Appleby College.
In a five try victory, Canada gave first year coach John Long a boost with a 35-17 score line.
Quick to set the tone of the game, a penalty kick from Canadian Ashley Patzer put the hosting team ahead, followed by a breakaway run by Brooke Hilditch from the centre line to make a touch.
After another penalty kick, Patzer managed to dodge several players to get a try. “It was my first international try with the Senior Women’s team, so I was pretty happy. We came out flying, which was really exciting.”
Attempts by South Africa were swatted away by an unrelenting wall of red, as scrum after scrum were returned in equal force.
The first half ended with a near try by the visiting team’s Onica Maoga but her hesitant steps allowed Canada to stop the play just before the posts, leaving the score at 30-0.
It was in the second half that the home team faced their oppositions rallying strength.
“We always expect Canada to come out strong,” said South Africa’s Head Coach Denver Wannier, “We played a much better game than we played France in the second half. We started off slowly, but we managed to pick away at them.”
A penalty kick by South Africa’s Zandile Nojoko gives her team a boosted confidence, as they quickly used the momentum to drive into Canada’s defence.
The first try to come to the southern hemisphere team came from a 30-yard run by Nojoko, with a second try to follow by Lorinda Brown.
Number 10 Nojoko really stood out, said Canada’s Head Coach John Long. “I think we started extremely well. In the second half, their forwards really started to dominate around the contact area, giving their half backs a good opportunity to play.”
The game progressed quickly as each team strived to remain on top. “We were lucky to hang on,” said Long. “They came back and hit us very well and it showed.”
Canada plays France on Aug. 16 at 4 p.m.
Other countries in the tournament include the USA, England, France and South Africa.
ENGLAND STRIDE PAST FRANCE 43-8
England proved to be late risers as they came back from 5-0 down to take their second win of the 2009 Women’s Nations Cup against France by a score of 43-8.
The defending champions were in fine form running in seven tries on Thursday evening at Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario.
Just as in their opening match against the USA on Monday evening, the English woke with vengeance as they failed to score the opening try of the match.
French winger Emilie Moreaux was first to touch down before England released an onslaught of tries as it took Danielle Waterman just seven minutes to draw level.
France would take the lead just once more through the boot of Christelle Le Duff before England unleashed their back line on Les Bleus.
Katherine Merchant scored two tries and Katy McLean kicked both conversions to have England leading 19-8 at the half time whistle.
Merchant would continue her scoring ways as she opened the second half with a dramatic tackle-breaking-run to lead 24-8 before Alice Richardson, Danielle Waterman and Emily Scarratt would each go over for tries.
“It was a great team effort,” Merchant said when reflecting on her team coming from behind twice during the match. “Being scored on early lifts you and makes you realize you can’t just be moderate – you have to give it everything.”
Despite claiming two solid wins early in this year’s Nation’s Cup English Head Coach Gary Street was cautious about his team’s recent form.
“We’re still early in our season as this was only our second game,” he said of his side notching 43 points in their second match. “We always expect teams to come out and really give their all against us but we use that to just ride out the storm and do what we need to do.”
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