After a pretty interesting Round 2 in the Women's Rugby World Cup we already know seven of our eight quarterfinalists.

The only one that is up in the air is Pool A, with Australia and the USA having tied 31-31, both of those teams are still in with a shot. However, the Eagles need to win by a huge margin over Samoa and need Australia to lose by a huge margin vs England to make the top eight. Australia is in a stronger position right now.

The big surprise was probably South Africa beating Italy 29-24 Sunday, marking a watershed moment for the South African team and bumping Italy out of quarterfinal contention. Ireland also eliminated Spain in a very exciting match 43-27, as Round 2 provided many more seat-edge moments than did Round 1.

North America's banner is being carried well by Canada, which remains one of the serious contenders to lift the World Cup trophy. Canada shut out Wales 42-0 Saturday in Manchester. McKinley Hunt scored two tries and Sophie de Goede's goalkicking and overall play ere strong. But there were things to fix, too.

“[If you would have offered us] 42 points before the game, we would have signed up for that," said Head Coach Kevin Rouet. "We had some brilliant moments today. If we refine our turnovers — 27 is way too many for a single game — imagine what we can do going forward.” 

“It was not our best performance, but we got the job done," added Canada captain Alex Tessier. "We forced a lot of turnovers and handling errors, so that’s what we’ll look to fix. When we keep the ball, our style is exciting and we can score tries back-to-back — that’s key for us.” 

For the USA, the frustration is the ability to break through and score from possession. Yes they scored five tries and 31 points against Australia, but they did that with 63% of possession. Here's the breakdown of some of the stats:

Posession: USA 63% Australia 37%
Balls Played: USA 350 Australia 200
Carries: USA 155 Australia 73
Meters Carried: USA 942 Australia 496
Tackle Breaks: USA 21 Australia 14
Rucks and Mauls Won: USA 148 Australia 67
Dominant Tackles: USA 4 Australia 2
Tackles Made: USA 102 Australia 229

Four USA players carried for more meters than the top Australian, Desiree Miller. Australia's top tacklers, Michaele Leonard, made more than twice as many tackles as the top USA tacklers (Erica Jarrell Searcy and Rachel Johnson).

Also, as noted in GRR's report, only four subs were used by the USA, and zero front-rowers came on. Hope Rogers, Kathryn Treder, and Meia Mae Sagapolu all played the full 80 minutes. We're not sure when that last happened but it must be quite some time ago.

So why did the USA not win that game?

Turnovers Conceded: USA 15 Australia 4
Bad Passes: USA 9 Australia 4

That's part of it. Handling errors—knock-ons and dropped balls—killed several attacking movements.

But look also at this as a percentage of carries: 
Tackle Breaks as a % of Carries: USA 13.5% Australia 19.1%
Line Breaks as a % of Carries: USA 1.9% Australia 8.2%

This was the major difference between the USA and England in the last game. England won by 62 and yet almost all the stats were close to equal ... combined tackle breaks and line breaks for the USA was 15.8%; for England 23%.

We don't have conversion from inside the 22, but we'll try to get that for you. We're pretty sure the USA loses that comparison, too.

Our conclusion is that there's a tactical issue, there's a strategic issue, and key skill breakdowns—retaining ball in contact—hurt the USA's offensive efficiency.