GUILDFORD, UK – The fifth place play-off will be a North American affair after both USA and Canada stormed past Ireland and Scotland respectively, scoring plenty of tries in the process.

IRELAND v USA
By Nathaniel John

USA gained revenge for their defeat in the pool stages with an emphatic 40-3 defeat of Ireland at Surrey Sports Park on Wednesday to guarantee a top six finish at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010.

Victoria Folayan and Amy Daniels both scored a brace of tries with Vanesha McGee also touching down to set up a fifth place play-off with North American rivals Canada on Sunday after they came through against Scotland.

VIEW MATCH DETAILS >>

With Ireland, who had come out on top 22-12 in their Pool B encounter on day two, controlling the early exchanges, USA managed to score a try with the first real attack by their backs through wing Folayan. The ball being spread wide to the powerful wing, who outpaced two Irish defenders before handing off a third on her way to the line.

The try instilled confidence into the USA, who scored their second midway through the first half following a scrum deep into the Irish 22. From the scrum, the Women Eagles set up a rolling maul which Ireland brought down illegally, allowing referee Sébastien Minery to award a penalty try.

Christy Ringgenberg added the conversion, but then on the half hour mark Ireland full back Niamh Briggs kicked her side back into contention with a well-struck 25-metre penalty to reduce the deficit to 14-3.

However, the Irish joy was short-lived as five minutes before the break centre Daniels crashed through for her first and USA’s third try of the afternoon, bringing the score to 21-3 at the interval.

Ireland came out in the second half a rejuvenated side and spent the first 20 minutes camped inside the USA half with all the possession, but little to show for it on the scoreboard.

This would proved costly when they were punished after losing possession in the USA 22, the Women’s Eagles quickly broke using their backs with Folayan bursting through two tackles before offloading to Daniels just over the halfway line. The centre then had the easier task of running in the try to score next to the posts, despite the Ireland defence chasing back.

With minutes remaining, USA scored their fifth try through the impressive Folayan. After a series of scrums in the Irish 22, USA spread the ball blind to the wing, who ran around the on-rushing defence to extend her side’s lead to 33-3.

Just two minutes later, the Women’s Eagles completed their scoring with their final try of the afternoon from replacement wing McGee. Again orchestrated by their impressive backline, captain Ashley English exploited an overlap to find the flying wing to score her second.

Ireland must now regroup for a seventh place play-off against Scotland on Sunday.

POST MATCH REACTION

USA coach Kathy Flores: “In the England match, the players saw what they can do, what we have been telling them all along and we had to keep that going. We didn’t really prepare any differently to the first Ireland match. As a coach you always want the perfect game but I am very proud of them.

“The Canada game is going to be bragging rights for North America. The players need to rest and then we’re going to try and get away and have some fun with the players.”

USA captain Ashley English: “We are very pleased with our game. We stuck to our game plan and we got the ball wide and we ended up with a lot of points on the board, very pleased. Our set pieces were good and we went forward and had good ball handling today. And we got our penalty count down which was really good.”

On avenging loss to Ireland: “It’s not often you get a chance to redo something in life and today we got a chance to do it and we did it better this time.”

On facing Canada next: “Every game is different. We have played Canada a lot last year so we know some of their tricks, but they know some of our tricks. We’ll just have to see what happens on the day and hopefully we will come out on top.”

Remaining Matches of the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup

11th Place Play-Off

05 Sep, 11:00 Kazakhstan - Sweden Surrey Sports Park (Pitch 2), Guildford

9th Place Play-Off

05 Sep, 13:15 South Africa - Wales Surrey Sports Park (Pitch 2), Guildford

7th Place Play-Off

05 Sep, 11:15 Scotland - Ireland Surrey Sports Park (Pitch 1), Guildford

5th Place Play-Off

05 Sep, 13:30 Canada - USA Surrey Sports Park (Pitch 1), Guildford

3rd Place Play-Off

05 Sep, 15:00 France - Australia Twickenham Stoop, Twickenham

Final

05 Sep, 17:15 New Zealand - England Twickenham Stoop, Twickenham

View Original Post at thephaidraknight.com

• Filed Under:  
• Rugby, Sports

This post is related to an event on our Calendar:

• Women's Rugby World Cup