![\"Web_124158.RUGBYU-Wales-Women--12395435_PICTURES_PRI13](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/8aaa49e622ceedc86a9d6b779427d1d6.jpeg\"\/)
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Web_124158.RUGBYU-Wales-Women–12395435_PICTURES_PRI13 (25b5afdcf4b414488c7758f1eb5bae69430e87b3) PA Wire<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s bid to ruin England\u2019s home tournament continues to gather pace after cruising to a 42-0 win over Wales, with their outstanding forward Sophie de Goede the star of the show. The more goalkicking forwards the better, with De Goede converting all six of Canada’s tries in Salford and also providing the assist for McKinley Hunt’s opening score.<\/p>\n
Asia Hogan-Rochester scored arguably the pick of Canada\u2019s tries, finishing off a lethal counter-attack from a restart. Sadly for Wales, that moment summed up their defensive struggles in their opening two matches. The Scotland match last week had been a must-win and they were blown off the field in a 38-8 drubbing.<\/p>\n
A bright start against Canada failed to produce points and that was as close as they went. The Wales captain, Bethan Lewis, remained upbeat. \u201cObviously there’s disappointment with that finishing scoreline, but the first 10-15 minutes, we showed what we can do. It\u2019s just about doing that for the full 80 and not allowing lapses of concentration. I\u2019m proud of how we\u2019ve come out after last week but I know we\u2019ve got more to give.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scotland\u2019s Francesca McGhie tormented Wales last week and gave her country the perfect start in their 29-15 win over Fiji, scoring inside the first two minutes by winning the race to Emma Orr\u2019s kick behind the defence. Two scores for McGhie\u2019s wing partner Rhona Lloyd meant Scotland led 17-5 at the break, with Fiji\u2019s cause not helped by a yellow card for a high tackle by Vika Matarugu.<\/p>\n
There was a moment after Manuqalo Komaitai\u2019s try in the second half, finishing an excellent team move, where Scotland might have tensed up. McGhie\u2019s second try and Bitila Tawake\u2019s red card for a high tackle on Elis Martin eased that pressure, but Fiji remained competitive until the end even when playing with 14. In fact, they finished the match with 13 players following Adi Salote Nailolo\u2019s deliberate knock-on desperately trying to prevent another Scotland try. As contests go, it was highly entertaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cScrappy, very very scrappy,\u201d conceded Evie Gallagher, player of the match. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to give credit to Fiji, they brought it to us, pushed us right to our limits, but I’m glad we got to put on such a show for all the fans who came to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wales await next for Fiji, but the battle between the top two sides in Pool B in Exeter next Saturday between Canada and Scotland, with two bonus-point wins each to their name so far, should be one of the best matches in the pool stages, even with both sides already through to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
Four fixtures await on Sunday and attention will be on Pool C to see how New Zealand and Ireland build on their perfect starts to the tournament. Six-time champions New Zealand are in action against Japan in Exeter and the big guns are back in their starting backline, with Ruahei Demant, Katelyn Vaha\u2019akolo and Portia Woodman-Wickliffe all coming into the side.<\/p>\n
History beckons for Woodman-Wickliffe, widely and rightly regarded as the world\u2019s best player, who needs one more try to become New Zealand\u2019s all-time top try scorer. No men\u2019s or women\u2019s player has ever scored 50 Test tries for New Zealand. Woodman-Wickliffe would certainly be a fitting person to break that landmark. \u201cIt will be some of our ladies\u2019 first World Cup game, so it\u2019s going to be a pretty special moment for them,\u201d said Allan Bunting, the New Zealand head coach, with Vaha’akolo, Atlanta Lolohea, Veisinia Mahutariki-Fakalelu and Maia Joseph all making their World Cup debuts. \u201cWorld Rugby and England have done a good job. We feel pretty special here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Ireland head coach Scott Bemand has made seven changes to his side for their game against Spain, as Ireland look to build on their opening 42-14 win over Japan. Bemand spoke warily of Spain\u2019s mobility given the number of players in their side with backgrounds playing sevens. \u201cThis is our first chance to nail that quarter-final position \u2013we\u2019re absolutely gunning for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two matches in Pool D round off the action with France taking on tournament newcomers Brazil, while Italy face South Africa looking for their first points of the tournament after a 24-0 loss to France.<\/p>\n
Analysis: Sarah Beckett \u2013 Red Roses have delivered but Wales lack clinical edge in sobering defeat<\/b><\/p>\n
England\u2019s dominant victory over Samoa highlighted a frustrating reality: while they scored freely, with a wide variety of tries scored, it was difficult to assess what they truly gained from the encounter. The Samoans offered minimal resistance, and the Red Roses largely played in cruise control. The main takeaway was a good runout and valuable game minutes for players in the wider squad, as head coach John Mitchell made 13 changes from the team that faced the USA in round one. While the scoreline reflected a clinical performance, it revealed little about England\u2019s readiness for more competitive opposition as they progress in the tournament.<\/p>\n
In the end, Samoa just couldn\u2019t cope with England\u2019s ball speed and fell short physically \u2013 both in terms of fitness and their collision physicality. I expected that Samoa would be weak at the set piece but be strong in contact, so I was disappointed to see how underwhelming they were when it came to the latter. England now face Australia, with 10 points already in the bag and a quarter-final place confirmed. In terms of what Mitchell wanted out of this group stage, the Red Roses have delivered exactly what he ordered.<\/p>\n
Wales, however, faced a far more sobering reality in their 42-0 defeat to Canada. The Welsh performance was one of frustration, as they struggled to execute despite a promising start. For much of the first half, Wales showed physicality and created a number of attacking opportunities, but they lacked the clinical edge to capitalise on them. Canada, on the other hand, defended resolutely and exploited gaps in the Welsh defence when the opportunities arose. The Welsh scrum, which had been solid early on, faltered as the match wore on, and their set pieces(?) began to fall apart after the opening 20 minutes. The lineout was also poor until head coach Sean Lynn made key changes in the forwards.<\/p>\n
The second half saw Wales find their way, especially in the last 25 minutes, but by that point there was no saving them. The truth is, they struggled from the 15th minute up until the 55th. As the pressure mounted, they could not cope with Canada\u2019s tactical execution and sharp ball movement, especially after Wales’ defensive lapses. Despite some handling errors, Canada were in a commanding position. The Welsh chase-back was commendable, but it wasn\u2019t enough to stave off the inevitable as Canada secured the victory with ease.<\/p>\n
I predict that Ireland will comfortably beat Spain. Cl\u00e0udia Pe\u00f1a will be crucial to Spain\u2019s attack, but I think Ireland\u2019s forwards will bring the edge that the team need to see out an important win.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Web_124158.RUGBYU-Wales-Women–12395435_PICTURES_PRI13 (25b5afdcf4b414488c7758f1eb5bae69430e87b3) PA Wire Canada\u2019s bid to ruin England\u2019s home tournament continues to gather pace after cruising to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,943,393,33405,4884,704,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-386434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fiji","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115121396659172099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}