Canada win over Ireland in World Cup Opener

Canada’s NSWT cracked open the 2010 World Cup with a 37 – 10 victory over the Scots in London, England.

With five tries and 12 points off the boot of flyhalf Anna Schnell, Canada started the World Cup exactly how they planned at the expense of ninth-ranked Scotland.

Schnell was the opening and closing brackets of scoring for Canada, who never really did look shaky, even with the added pressure of being the opening match of the entire tournament.

Canada probed Scotland’s defense to see if there were any weak links, and they ended up exposing a few, finding success on the wing, through the centres, as well as up front with Barbara Mervin touching down Canada’s first try.

No.8 Kelly Russell did not make the score sheet, but she had an outstanding match as the scrum’s rudder and had a hand in a few of Canada’s scores.

Mandy Marchak, who also featured for Canada at the Rugby Sevens World Cup and at the last XV’s World Cup, was a runaway train and crossed Scotland’s line twice. The centre-pairing of Marchak and Sarah Ulmer is one area of Canada’s lineup that has remained unchanged in the past year, and their strong link showed today.

Scotland’s Lucy Millard used the same footwork that saw her so much personal success in the Six Nations to get around Canada’s backs to touch down in the corner. The Scots would need Canada to go down a player when Barbara Mervin was penalized for pulling down a jumper in the lineout for Scotland to score a scrappy try.

The Scots never did genuinely threaten to take the match, but with every score counting towards qualification in the later stages of the World Cup, Canada continued to tack on points until the final whistle, including outside trots for wingers Heather Moyse and vice-captain Maria Gallo.

The NSWT was training exceptionally well this week but they were reluctant to read too much into it; Canada can exhale a little and look to their next match having started the tournament with the form they did.

Head Coach John Long was visibly excited at his squad’s performance, as he was also unsure of what to expect.

“We started fast and we gave some great tries. We were running great lines and the girls really put in a performance. We knew Scotland were going to come back at us with a good half and they certainly did that, but for us to make sure we held strong until the end, well it was just magic.”

Vice-captain Maria Gallo who was a beneficiary of Mervin and Russell’s candy hands, was very pleased with her squad’s first match and says they will use it to build their next performance on.

“Scotland came out hard, but we had a quick start which was one our aims for the tournament. We want to start fast and finish strong, which are two things we actually achieved today. We didn’t execute on some of our back plays and didn’t use all of our attributes but we’re definitely going to work on that in the next few days, but I think we’re happy. We had a good win. One down, and four to go.”

Canada will play Sweden on Tuesday, August 24 at 2.15pm BST at the same tournament venue.

Scoring Summary

CAN 37
Tries: Barbara Mervin, Mandy Marchak (2), Maria Gallo, Heather Moyse
Cons: Schnell (3)
Pens: Schnell (2)

SCO 10
Tries: Lucy Millard, Lindsay Wheeler