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Wales on brink of exit from Women’s World Cup after Canada thrashing
By PA
Wales are on the brink of a group-stage exit from the Women’s Rugby World Cup after being brushed aside 42-0 by heavily-fancied Canada at Salford Community Stadium.
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A 38-8 loss to Scotland in last weekend’s curtain-raiser left Wales needing to beat Canada – ranked second in the world behind only England – to realistically keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
They dominated territory and possession early on but went 28-0 down just after the half-hour as McKinley Hunt’s two tries and one each for Alysha Corrigan and Asia Hogan-Rochester put Canada on top.
Taylor Perry and Brittany Kassil touched down after the break, whilst Wales’ Georgia Evans was yellow-carded not helping their cause, and Sophie de Goede converted all six tries as Canada laid down a marker for their title aspirations.
They are now on the brink of a last-eight place and Wales’ elimination will be confirmed if Scotland beat Fiji later on in Pool B on Saturday.
Wales, who were without co-captains Alex Callender and Kate Williams due to injury, shipped a try after 55 seconds against Scotland but they sprung out of the traps to put Canada under heavy pressure.
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Lisa Neumann was just out of reach in an attempt to collect a ball over the top, while Bethan Lewis hesitated when a cross-field kick was sent her way and failed to gather with the try line beckoning.
With Wales’ lineout malfunctioning, Canada were able to shrug off a sluggish opening 10 minutes and build pressure inside the opposition 22, which eventually told as Hunt burrowed over under the posts.
Having started the contest so well, Hunt’s try after being teed up by Alex Tessier and De Goede was a gut punch for the Welsh and worse was to follow as Canada struck three times inside five minutes.
Corrigan was the first to go over in the 26th minute, putting the finishing touch to a fine move which stretched Wales’ defence, while Hunt celebrated her second moments later to continue the one-way traffic.
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From the restart, the ball was worked to the left and Hogan-Rochester broke on the wing, sprinting 60 metres to touch down for Canada’s bonus-point try.
Gabrielle Senft saw a try chalked off for a couple of infractions after half-time although Evans was sin-binned for a high challenge in the build-up.
Down to 14 players, Wales fell further behind when Canada – not for the first time – went through the phases and recycled the ball for Perry to touch down before Kassil dived over following a driving maul.
Kassil’s try came with 26 minutes still to go but Canada saw prop Olivia DeMerchant sent to the bin for a high tackle and they coasted in the closing stages, holding off a spirited Wales finish.
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