Key Battles: How the Red Roses dominated the Wallaroos
WXV 1 Kicked off with a ferocious encounter between England and Australia that saw the world number one Red Roses dominate almost from the first whistle, winning by 42 points to the Wallaroos’ seven. Despite missing a number of big-name players, and with incoming head coach John Mitchell looking on, the Red Roses laid down a challenge to the rest of the competition. Here are a few of the key battles and why England won them.
Front Row – Advantage England
What a first 40 for Hannah Botterman. She was everywhere, opening the scoring, threatening at the breakdown and a constant thorn in Australia’s side. She showed her set piece nous too, bending the Australian scrum and securing a penalty that gave her team a scoring opportunity. Connie Powell had a great game too, some nice breaks and solid contributions in the set piece.
For the Wallaroos front row it was a quieter day at the office. They held their own in the scrum against their opposition despite being the smaller group but struggled to make their mark in the loose.
Second Row – Advantage England
Australia’s Annabelle Codey was yellow carded for a shoulder to the head in the first half, and in the second half received another for a similar offence.
Her opposite numbers showed their usual lineout dominance and efficiently controlled the ball in the loose. Replacement Sarah Beckett saw yellow in the closing seconds, bearing the brunt for repeated infringements by her team defending their line.
Back Row – Advantage England
The battle of the sevens was the highlight in the backrow. Emily Chancellor was one of the best players in a green shirt, but Marlie Packer eclipsed even her, scoring two tries, winning turnovers and dominating the psychological battle.
Ashley Marsters, off the bench after 50 minutes, opened the scoring for the Wallaroos with a deft step through the English defence.
Half backs – Advantage England
Holly Aitchison’s best performance in the 10 shirt came at the right time to crown this new tournament. Flawless distribution, some powerful running and 100% accuracy from the tee showed exactly why her coaches have kept her in that spot. Ella Wyrwas scored her first international try and was a constant pest.
Layne Morgan distributed well for the Wallaroos and, prior to having to leave the field with what looked to be an elbow injury, Carys Dallinger showed some deft touches to create space for her team.
Centres – Tied
It was a suspiciously quiet first half for Meg Jones, but alongside Tatyana Heard she quietly got on with her business, biding her time before popping up to increase the English lead in the second half.
Arabella Mackenzie kept her team ticking even when the game was lost and stepped up as their chief playmaker once Dallinger left the field.
Outside Backs – Advantage England
Australia’s Ivania Wong showed flashes of what a danger she could be, though her finest moment came early in the second half when her searing pace saved Australia from conceding another try by rescuing a loose ball close to the try line.
Jess Breach scored a trademark try for the Red Roses while Abby Dow seemed determined to snuff out every Australia attack on the flanks.
Comments on RugbyPass
The URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to comments