USA Battle But England Downs Eagles in WRWC Warmup
USA Battle But England Downs Eagles in WRWC Warmup
England defeated the USA 52-14 in the final warmup match for the Eagles in advance of the Women's Rugby World Cup.
It was a performance rife with issues for the Americans, but also peppered with some positive moments. Clearly the Eagles were the second-best side in the first half, going into the locker room down 33-0. But a much better second half both defensively and on attack saw the scoreline at 17-12 in England's favor.
This was a good second 40 showing for the USA, especially when you consider that right now England is far and away the world's top-ranked side and their scores over the last 12 months are sobering: 43-12 and 56-15 against New Zealand, 51-12 over Canada and 89-0 over the USA, 57-5 over Scotland, 74-0 over Italy, 58-5 over Wales, 69-0 over Ireland, and 24-12 over France.
So scoring two tries again this lot is something to hang your hat on ... at least for a while.
the game was played at Sandy Park in Exeter, where several USA players pitch-up for the Exeter Chiefs. It was wet and rainy, as is not uncommon in the summer in that part of the world (where you don't tan so much as rust).
England Opens Up Early
England dominated field position in the first half.
The territorial pressure forced errors by the Eagles, and within a few minutes scrumhalf Natasha Hunt stepped her way over from a scrum move five meters out.
Soon England was over the line again, this time intercepting a pass from Gabby Cantorna—Jess Breach camping out and waiting for a pass Cantorna certainly has to feel she should have never sent.
The England maul was firing well and Amy Cokayne capped off the shove for England’s third try. They went wide for the next one as Zoe Harrison and Ellie Kildunne combined nicely to set up Claudia MacDonald. Breach scored her second thanks to a steal from No. 8 Poppy Cleal and it was 33-0.
Late in the first half the Eagles did get into England’s 22, but the ball was achingly slow out of the ruck and as a result England was winning the tackles. But England also benefited from some really negative play—killing the ball in the rucks, interfering with scrumhalf Olivia Ortiz, and doing that thing that they are coached to do—run from an offside position to an onside position on a course that takes you between scrumhalf and ruck.
Referee Aurélie Groizeleau eventually started to clamp down on this but her warning was too late and too weak. Cantorna lined up a penalty right on the stroke of halftime but pushed it wide.
Second Half Rebound
It was a different USA team that returned to the field for the second half. They started to find ways to involve their backs a bit more—Alev Kelter specifically—and everyone seemed to run with a bit more authority. But still, close to the tryline, it was a plodding scene. Rucks taking four or five seconds to produce a pass just played into England’s hands. The Eagles got right to the line only to lose the ball—the Americans were also too high in contact—and England actually worked their way down the field. A break from Emily Scarratt set them up and then out it went to MacDonald. USA wing Jennine Detiveaux had a two-on-one to cover and chose to cover prop Hannah Botterman, leaving wing MacDonald free to race in.
England seemed to have another try soon thereafter off a lineout and maul, but video review showed that both England lifters and blocked the US defenders, reversing the try and giving the Eagles a penalty. (This seemed fair as the penalty that led to this lineout was a bit harsh.)
The Eagles had their best period after that. They started to produce the ball a little faster and realized that the first forward there might just as well pick it up and keep running. A silly obstruction penalty by England set up a lineout and a good drive by the USA. Reserve scrumhalf Carly Waters sent a flat pass to Kelter who made ground, and then prop Hope Rogers did three crucial things: she picked the ball up instead of rucking over, she stayed low, forcing English tacklers to try to stop her with their hands, and she engaged the English with power, crashing down over the line for the try.
Hope Rogers tries pic.twitter.com/5bTCQQvFik
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) September 3, 2022
So that made it 45-7. After that the USA had the run of play with some powerful running from Kelter and No. 8 Kate Zackary. Once again the ball seemed a little quicker. Finally, with an England player in the sin bin for a dangerous tackle on Zackary, the Eagles sent it wide to Detiveaux was raced off to the corner. She was caught, but was able to feed the ball inside before she went into touch.
The pass didn’t go to hand as Holly Atchison blocked the pass. But on closer review she did it illegally—a deliberate knock-on into touch. Yellow card, penalty try, and it was 45-14.
But the final minutes, despite England being down two players, belonged to the hosts and a nifty kick through for Kildunne (poorly handled by the USA it must be said) finished the game off 52-14.
Positives
The second half was possibly the USA’s best offensive performance in some time. They showed they can hurt even the best of defenses.
They figured out (we hope) the need for quick ball and showed that if the first receive gets the ball less than two-and-a-half seconds after the tackle, they make ground, sometimes a lot of ground.
Their lineout and scrum are both very solid, and while England’s maul is very good, the USA defended it fairly well.
Negatives
The other side of the quick ball coin is when it took four or five seconds to get a runner the ball. That can be overcome with huge physicality, but if you don’t have that, you’re going backwards. At scrumhalf Ortiz at times got the rhythm of the attack moving and sometimes needed to be quicker. Waters, who has been too slow in the past, was better this time around. Either way, the forwards too often just parked themselves over a ruck rather than realize it was time to pick up the ball and go ahead.
Communication on attack (wide open players not getting the ball) and on defense (massive gaps not filled) hurt the USA.
It’s not that the USA players aren’t talking, it’s more that they talk (and yell) so much that the message is lost in the noise. (Sometimes, speaking the instruction instead of yelling it can cut through the clamor.)
Not Quite Good Enough
The USA team has several really accomplished players. They are good athletes and know how to play rugby. Going into a game against England committed to a plodding phase-by-phase attack, the moments of lacking cohesion or communication are not problems based on the quality of the players. These are preparation issues.
"I think there were a lot of small successes," said captain Zackary, who cited the set piece as something they did well. "We came out overall 19-14 in that second half. We had hoped to win that second half and own that last 40 minutes, which I think we did for the majority of the time.
Still, this performance was good enough for the USA to win their pool in the World Cup; it’s just that the standards and expectations are higher than that.
USA 14
Tries: Rogers, Penalty Try
Convs: Cantorna, Penalty Try
1. Hope Rogers; 2. Joanna Kitlinski; 3. Nick James; 4. Hallie Taufoou; 5. Kristine Sommer ; 6. Rachel Johnson; 7. Georgie Perris-Redding; 8. Kate Zackary (c); 9. Olivia Ortiz; 10. Gabby Cantorna; 11. Lotte Clapp; 12. Katana Howard; 13. Eti Haungatau; 14. Jennine Detiveaux; 15. Alev Kelter
Reserves: 16. Catie Benson; 17. Charli Jacoby; 18. Evi Ashenbrucker; 19. Elizabeth Cairns; 20. Carly Waters; 21. Megan Foster; 22. Meya Bizer
England 52
Tries: Hunt, Breach 2, Cokayne 2, MacDonald 2, Kildunne
Convs: Scarratt 6
1. Hannah Botterman; 2. Amy Cokayne; 3. Bryony Cleall; 4. Rosie Galligan; 5. Cath O’Donnell; 6. Zoe Aldcroft ; 7. Sadia Kabeya; 8. Poppy Cleall; 9. Natasha Hunt; 10. Zoe Harrison; 11. Claudia MacDonald; 12. Tatyana Heard; 13. Emily Scarratt (c); 14. Jess Breach; 15. Ellie Kildunne
Reserves: 16. Connie Powell; 17. Maud Muir; 18. Shaunagh Brown; 19. Morwenna Talling; 20. Vicky Fleetwood; 21. Leanne Infante; 22. Helena Rowland; 23. Holly Aitchison
