365 Sporting Days

An afternoon at The Stonex Stadium is no unusual thing for me, to be watching the Red Roses play is, I think we’ve seen one women’s international game before, that being England v USA in 2018. This was the second in a 2 match series against Canada who sit 4th in the World Rankings to England in First place at as today.

The first match at Sandy Park saw a final score of England 50 Canada 24 – while this was also a win for England it certainly wasn’t as emphatic. It’s taken some effort to find the stats for the game, but I have found them. Click on the result on the BBC app and – nothing. Coverage of Women’s rugby still leaves a lot to be desired, click on a Premiership Cup match and I get a full list of scores, teams, interchanges etc. To be fair to the BBC there is a live running commentary online, so not all bad.

The Red Roses scored 2 tries in the first 13 minutes with Marlie Packer going over from the back of a rolling maul, Playing at 8 rather than as Flanker, she played her usual intense game. The 2nd try went to Ellie Kildunne, who although playing at 15 did a very good impression of a forward in powering over the line.

A key moment in the game came on 17 minutes as Gabrielle Senft went high in Hannah Botterman, it looked like a head clash to me and Senft was very upright. Play continued as Botterman was sat om the floor, I presume the TMO intervened,, the incident was deemed got be a high degree of danger and straight to the head, therefore a red card.

Canada really hadn’t b been in the game up until that point, but the card seemed to spur them on, nd it was them who were next to score as Sara Svoboda charged down a Holly Aitchison kick, she gathered the ball and scored! Both England conversions had been missed as was this one, the score was England 10 Canada 5 after 27 minutes.

The score stayed that way until the stroke of half-time until Maud Muir scored after taking a pass from Natasha Hunt, Megan Jones was successful with the conversion and the teams went in at half-time with the score on England 17 Canada 5.

Action Photos from the First Half

Canada were impressive in the first half, down to 14 for all but 17 minutes, they really lifted their game after that point, England had a battle on their hands in what was a stop start game as there seemed to be knock ons galore, and therefore scrums galore. The performance in those scrums was quite even, England won 13 and Canada 11 throughout the game. The one surprising area was the disparity in the number of penalties conceded, England gave away 16 to Canada’s 9. Marlie Packer was I presume, warned at one point, which surely should have meant a yellow card at the next penalty, but no, the hand went up for the penalty but not for a yellow. England will need to sort out that penalty count before the new World competion starts – the WXV.

The second half saw England move thread on 50 minutes when eventual Player of the Match Amber Reed took the task into her own hands to run through the defence and score. The conversion was good and England moved to 24 points. Jess Breach scored England’s last try on 69 minutes after a perfectly timed pass from Centre Megan Jones. N0 extras added this time, the kicking at goal hadn’t.t been ideal.

Canada had the final, deserved word as Taylor Perry smashed through a Marlie Packer tackle, Sophie de Goede added the extras with a difficult conversion, the final score was England 29 Canada 12. An impressive performance from Canada in spite of the loss, considering the time they spent with 14!