GRR: Eagle Women
(This is an opinion column by Goff Rugby Report Editor Alex Goff). The end of the Pan-Am Games for the USA was not what they wanted.
Canada dominated the final of the women’s rugby competition at the Pan-Am Games, defeating the USA 55-7.
The Eagles opened the scoring with a nicely-taken long-range try from Kristen Thomas, but after that, Canada controlled all. They poached brilliantly at the ruck, and either re-won their restarts or pinned the USA deep in their 22 and exerted pressure from here.
Canada and the USA lead the standings in the 2015 Pan-Am Games women's rugby tournament as both went 3-0 Saturday.
Both teams were very comfortable winners. Canada shut out all of their opponents. The Eagles fell behind 7-0 against Agrentina before powering in eight tries to win 54-7.
The New Zealand Black Ferns rode a dominat second half to beat the USA 47-14 in the Women's Super Series in Alberta Sunday, capping off a 3-0 run.
The Eagles led early in the first half and were within a point at the break, but little erros undercut what was a fairly encouraging performance by the United States, and handed victory to New Zealand.
USA WNT v New Zealand in the Super Series
Lineups:
NZ 1 Toka Natua 2 Fiao’o Fa’amausili (capt.) 3 Aleisha Nelson 4 Eloise Blackwell 5 Charmaine Smith 6 Charlene Halapua 7 Justine Lavea 8 Linda Itunu 9 Kendra Cocksedge 10 Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali 11 Renee Wickliffe/Janna Vaughan 12 Chelsea Alley 13 Stacey Waaka 14 Honey Hireme 15 Selica Winiata