Your Scrumhalf Connection - Women's Rugby Blog

You can either view the at Scrumhalf Connection or go directly to the Ustream site here. Each match will also be archived and available at Ustream.

For full rosters and schedule of Nations Cup 2009, go here.
8/10: USA vs England Match Report
8/10: France vs South Africa Match Report
8/13: Canada vs South Africa Match Report
8/13: England vs France Match Report
8/16: Canada vs France Match Report
8/16: USA vs South Africa Match Report
8/19: England vs South Africa Match Report
8/19: Canada vs USA Match Report
8/22: USA vs France Match Report
8/22: England vs Canada Match Report

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from Rugby Canada:

In their first meeting since the 2006 World Cup, England took a 25-0 win over valiant South Africa, though it did not come easy.

In South Africa’s final match of the 2009 Nations Cup, England’s performance was riddled with unforced handling errors that plagued them through to the final whistle, punctuated by what should have been two easy tries in the final minutes of the game, but were interrupted by a knock on and a forward pass.

The Bokke clearly regarded this match as the pinnacle of their Nations Cup campaign and came out of the gates flying, appearing to catch England off guard. South Africa’s Phumeza Gadu made her way to England’s one metre line, but was neatly bundled into touch before dotting down.

South Africa Sevens’ athletes Gadu and Saloma impressed for the entire 80 minutes and were able to cleverly create chances out of seemingly dead end passages.

Against the grain of play, 20 minutes into the match, England finally struck when centre Rachel Burford broke several Bokke tackles, and after passing through the backs’ hands, the ball was run in by dangerous wing Kat Merchant. A 30m conversion from the sidelines by flyhalf Alice Richardson saw England go up 7-0.

Merchant was a threat with the ball and made ground on every possession; she had a hand in both of England’s second half tries, including a cheeky chip that was recovered by centre Burford.

The lead never seemed to ease England’s disjointedness, but were kept aloft by their sheer athleticism and fitness. Conversely, South Africa were able to hold their momentum, ending up in England’s 22 with probing kicks and stabbing runs.

A penalty directly under the posts saw England take an unconvincing 10-0 lead into half.

Both sides used their boots neatly for territory, and the second half opened with a bit of a tennis match, until England centre Claire Allan broke the Bokke defensive line with a smart dummy, setting up an elementary set up hands for England to touch down in the opposite corner.

Halftime did not allay South Africa’s efforts as they were able to maintain a compelling amount of pressure, only failing in the final quarter of the match when the exhaustion started to show.

A bright spot in England’s performance was their clinical set piece, guided by Catherine Spencer, and hooker Ollie Poore was solid with her lineout throws.

England’s captain and fullback Charlotte Barras shouldered half of her side’s messy victory with two tries, but England clearly looked less than enthralled when time ran out.

South Africa’s elation in the 25-point loss was clear when the final whistle was met by a cheer from their bench.

Bokke head coach Denver Wannies was pleased with side’s performance, and impressed with their steady development over the course of the Nations Cup competition.

“If you look at how we started from the beginning of the tournament until the end, you’d have to be naïve not to see the improvement. Today was a huge step in our progression towards the 2010 World Cup in August. Now we start structuring everything towards the World Cup, and we should have six test matches between now and then to help us prepare.”

Wannies was complimentary of his entire team, but pointed out his Sevens’ players for really standing out.

“It really was a team effort today, and I believe it was our totality that brought us so much success today, but Gadu and Booysen continue to be impact players for us.”

Clearly disgruntled with his squad’s showing, England head coach Gary Street was honest about their performance.

“We just didn’t play well. It was just one of those bad days at the office and we made a lot of unforced errors. If we were to take a positive from today’s match, a 25-nil win and a bonus point are obvious ones, but today was disappointing.”

Street was adamant about looking at the bigger picture with England’s entire tournament performance; his squad remains unbeaten and has only a game against fourth ranked Canada on Saturday standing between them and their second Nations Cup title.

“Every aspect of our game can improve from today, and we are already looking forward to the match against Canada.”

Final Score: 25-0

Halftime: 10-0