Red Roses defeat Canada
England made it two from two in the 2017 International Women’s Rugby Series with a hard-fought 27-20 win over Canada in Christchurch.
Lydia Thompson scored two tries for the Red Roses while Abbie Scott and Kay Wilson also went over, with seven points coming from the boot of Emily Scarratt.
Wing Magali Harvey kicked 10 points for Canada while Carolyn McEwen and Karen Paquin crossed the whitewash but they could not find a score in the closing stages.
England took the lead in the 10th minute when Scarratt made a break from her own 22m before feeding Thompson who marched into Canada’s 22m. The ball was recycled and Marlie Packer then offloaded to Scott who showed great strength to power over for her second try in two matches.
Four minutes later Canada got themselves on the board through a Harvey penalty but the Red Roses hit straight back, the ball going through the hands to Thompson who outpaced her opposite number and dived over in the corner.
Canada scored their first try of the match after 21 minutes after multiple phases prop McEwen barged her way over. Harvey slotted the conversion to reduce the gap to two points but Scarratt nailed a penalty on the stroke of half-time to take the score to 15-10.
With England piling on the pressure at the start of the second half, Canada’s flanker Paquin intercepted a long pass in her own 22m and raced away to run under the posts. Harvey added the extras to edge Canada ahead for the first time in the match with 50 minutes gone.
However, it was Red Roses wing Thompson again producing a moment of magic, beating several defenders on her way to the try line. Again, Harvey responded for Canada with a penalty to keep her side in touch.
England scored their fourth try on the hour mark when Scarratt broke through the Canadian defense once again and threw a long pass out to Wilson, who collected the ball and crossed in the corner to score her 11th try in her last five international matches.
England Women head coach Simon Middleton said: “We’re a little bit frustrated but at the same time I’m really proud of the way we hung in and won the game. Test match rugby is about winning, we did that today. We had some great moments in the game and some things we didn’t’ quite get right. We have just beaten one of the best teams in the world, I think we deserved to win the game, we just made life difficult for ourselves.”
Middleton added: “I’m absolutely confident we’ll learn quickly from this, which we’ll have to do going into the New Zealand game. We are two from two now, it’s where we wanted to be and we’re lining ourselves up for a great game against the Black Ferns.”
England captain Sarah Hunter said: “It certainly wasn’t the performance we necessarily wanted to put out there. On our behalf, there were a lot of unforced errors and we made life hard for ourselves, but it shows the sign of a good team to fight and get a win when not everything is going your way.”
Red Roses next take on New Zealand at Rotorua International Stadium on Saturday 17 June (KO 5:15 am BST) in their final match of the 2017 International Women’s Rugby Series.
Canada 20 – 27 England
Tries: A. Scott, Thompson (2), Wilson
Conversions: Scarratt (2)
Penalties: Scarratt
England match-day 23 against Canada, International Women’s Rugby Series
15 Danielle Waterman (Bristol, 69 caps)
14 Lydia Thompson (Worcester Valkyries, 33 caps)
13 Emily Scarratt (Lichfield, 68 caps)
12 Megan Jones (Bristol, 4 caps)
11 Sarah McKenna (Saracens, 14 caps)
10 Amber Reed (Bristol, 38 caps)
9 La Toya Mason (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 65 caps )
1 Rochelle Clark (Worcester Valkyries, 123 caps)
2 Amy Cokayne (Lichfield, 27 caps)
3 Justine Lucas (Lichfield, 21 caps)
4 Emily Braund (Lichfield, 26 caps)
5 Abbie Scott (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 16 caps)
6 Harriet Millar-Mills (Lichfield, 45 caps)
7 Marlie Packer (Bristol, 46 caps)
8 Sarah Hunter (Bristol, 92 caps)
16 Vicky Fleetwood (Saracens, 61 caps)
17 Vickii Cornborough (Aylsford Bulls, 25 caps)
18 Sarah Bern (Bristol, 10 caps)
19 Izzy Noel-Smith (Bristol, 31 caps)
20 Alex Matthews (Richmond, 31 caps)
21 Leanne Riley (Aylesford Bulls, 11 caps)
22 Katy Mclean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 85 caps)
23 Kay Wilson (Richmond, 44 caps)
England Women fixtures, International Women’s Rugby Series
Australia 10 – 53 England
Friday 9 June, Porirua Park, Wellington
Canada 20 – 27 England
Tuesday 13 June – Rugby Park, Christchurch
Saturday 17 June – Rotorua International Stadium (KO 5.15am BST)
New Zealand v England Women
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