The long wait until midnight last night was rewarded by what in the end was a remarkably comfortable win by England over France to gain a well deserved semi-final berth. A dominant English forward display meant that France rarely threatened the English line.
England's first try can on eight minute from wing Danielle Waterman, picking up from behind a stong forward drive, and similar forward pressure - this time a scrum - saw the a second try by Danielle just before half time. With Sue Day scoring two more tries within ten minutes of the restart England were home and dry. The final score was 27-8, but that barely reflects the English dominance - it wasn't until the 71st minute that France made any impact on the scoreboard.
Elsewhere perhaps the performance of the night came from Scotland. With two wins under their belts already a semi-final berth was there for the taking - just New Zealand stood in their way! In a terrific game the Scots held off the Kiwi charge for 56 minutes knowing that a single bonus point would see them into the semis. But then the dam burst, with New Zealanders running in three tries in six minutes to take the game but - to Scotland's credit - not a bonus point.
In the remaining games Canada beat Kazakhstan 45-5, Ireland beat South Africa 37-0, Spain made up for a things in the earlier game with a 14-12 winover Samoa, and the USA continued to do well with a 10-6 win of over Australia.
So who went through? The USA finished sixth thanks on nine points, but Scotland, France and Canada finishing on 10 - so it was down to tries scored... and it was Scotland lost out.
So on Tuesday England play Canada (at midnight our time again) after New Zealand have taken on France, which should give us the much anticipated Anglo-Kiwi final next Sunday.
Update...
One remarkable, and hiterto uncommented on fact, is that this semi-final line up is exactly the same as four years ago (when England beat Canada 53-10 and New Zealand beat France 30-0). In addition the three teams of the four teams competing for 5th to 8th place are also the same as four years ago (USA, Australia and Scotland being joined by Ireland this time instead of Spain).
1 comment:
The opening round of Six Nations fixtures certainly didn’t disappoint. We had a tense thriller (Ireland 16 – 11 Italy), a shocking upset (England 19 – 26 Wales) - which must have cost the bookies in Wales a few quid, seen as though the Welsh were massive underdogs and not forgetting that the Taffies like a bit of Rugby Betting UK. Then there were the brave Scots; who went down 27-6 to France. So many parts of Scotland’s game were working well and all three of the French tries came from schoolboy errors by the Scots... I hope their confidence is still in tact because they actually played really well.
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