Canada v England – A Preview
The two teams meet in a needle match that recalls the World Cup final of a decade ago.
Both the captains, Tyson Beukeboom (but note a comment below) and Marlie Packer, survive, so do Emily Scarratt, Mo Hunt, Alex Matthews and Karen Paquin, though Paquin doesn’t feature here.
An awful lot has changed since then, but the Canadians still aren’t full-time professionals, so their continued advance is all the more admirable. That’s the most noticeable change: the two nations now sit top of the pile, the Maple Leafs a full 2.65 ranking points ahead of the long-time world leaders, the Black Ferns.
Rouet and John Mitchell offer the following selections in their attempt to wrest the WXV1 trophy:
Canada
1 McKinley Hunt (Saracens) 2 Emily Tuttosi (Exeter Chiefs) 3 DaLeaka Menin (Exeter Chiefs) 4 Courtney Holtkamp (Red Deer Titans) 5 Laetitia Royer (ASM Romagnat ) 6 Pamphinette Buisa (Ottawa Irish) 7 Fabiola Forteza (Stade Bordelais) 8 Gabrielle Senft (Stade Bordelais) 9 Justine Pelletier (Stade Bordelais) 10 Claire Gallagher (Leicester Tigers ) 11 Paige Farries (Saracens ) 12 Alexandra Tessier (captain (tbc), Exeter Chiefs) 13 Shoshanah Seumanutafa (Chiefs Manukau) 14 Asia Hogan-Rochester (Toronto Nomads) 15 Julia Schell (Trailfinders)
16 Sara Cline (Western Force ) 17 Brittany Kassil (Guelph ) 18 Alexandria Ellis (Stade Villeneuvois Lille Métropole) 19 Tyson Beukeboom (Trailfinders) 20 Julia Omokhuale (Leicester Tigers) 21 Olivia Apps (Lindsay) 22 Alysha Corrigan (Saracens) 23 Fancy Bermudez (Saracens)
England
15 Ellie Kildunne (Quins) 14 Bo Westcombe-Evans (Lightning) 13 Helena Rowland (Lightning) 12 Tatyana Heard (Gloucester-Hartpury) 11 Jess Breach (Saracens) 10 Holly Aitchison (Bears) 9 Mo Hunt (Gloucester-Hartpury) 1 Hannah Botterman (Bears) 2 Amy Cokayne (Tigers) Lark Atkin- Davies (Bears) 3 Maud Muir (Gloucester-Hartpury) 4 Zoe Aldcroft (Gloucester-Hartpury) 5 Rosie Galligan (Saracens) 6 Maddie Feaunati (Chiefs) 7 Marlie Packer (captain, Saracens) 8 Alex Matthews (Gloucester-Hartpury)
16 Lark Atkin-Davies (Bears) 17 Mackenzie Carson (Gloucester-Hartpury) 18 Sarah Bern (Bears) 19 Abbie Ward (Bears) 20 Morwenna Talling (Sharks) 21 Lucy Packer (Quins) 22 Zoe Harrison (Saracens) 23 Emily Scarratt (Lightning)
Rouet’s Choice
Of course he wanted to send out the very strongest squad he could assemble, but there are still sizeable surprises. Not least the move of Tyson Beukeboom to the bench. She had taken over the team captaincy in the regretted absence of Sophie de Goede and claimed the most caps of all Maple Leafs.
But she yields her place to Courtney Holtkamp.
McKinley Hunt makes her first start since Canada’s great win against the Black Ferns in Christchurch last year. Asia Hogan-Rochester, who debuted in this tournament, gets a big boost by starting against
England
It’s still a formidable pack, even without De Goede, and the backs now how to manipulate opposition defneces to their advantage. They put 46 points on the French, if only 21 on the Irish.
Rouet is optimistic, but even home advantage shouldn’t be enough to secure his team the crown.
Mitchell’s choice
He has made three changes. Rosie Galligan replaces Abbie Ward in the second row; Maddie Feraunati claims the 6 shirt, with Morwenna Talling also moved to the bench.
The one surprise is to see Bo Westcombe-Evans instead of Abby Dow on the wing; she is withdrawn from the game with suspected concussion. It shouldn’t reduce England’s attacking abilities more than a hair’s breadth; it’s Dow’s defensive qualities that mark her out as much as her try-scoring feats.
One selection that will cause bemusement beyond the StoneX Stadium is the retention of Holly Aitchison at 10. It was all too easy to spot her errors in recent matches, but at least a few of them were due directly to Mitchell’s preferred game mode. She stands as flat as she dares, sends out out flat passes that ask questions of her midfielders, but more so of her opponents.
You can go through the Black Ferns’ game with a fine toothcomb and spot all manner of brilliant contributions she made. One that works remarkably well is her sudden sprint across behind Tatyana Heard. Heard links with her in a virtuoso example of ESP. One such led to possibly the most breathtaking of the team tries the Red Roses have achieved since the end-to-end job last year with Claudia Macdonald and Dow (also against Canada!)
Still, the advocates for Zoe Harrison’s selection have a strong case. They might feel a touch of sympathy too for Connie Powell, who seems to have gone to British Columbia purely for a holiday.
It was amusing to hear Marlie Packer talking about the ‘young team’ around her. The average age of the eight backs against Black Ferns was over 28. That’s where the phrase “building for the future” hits home. The only youngster in the pack was Feaunati.
The jibe thrown at the men’s team that won the 2003 World Cup was “Dad’s Army”, so there’s a lot to be said for experience. Just a reminder: England’s 50-cappers include Scarratt, Packer, Matthews, Cokayne, Atkin-Davies, Botterman, Hunt, Harrison, Bern, Aldcroft and Ward, with others hot on their heels.
I’ll let you imagine how the line-up will look in five years’ time.
Match details:
Date: Saturday 12 October (in Vancouver, not everywhere!)
Venue: BC Place, Vancouver
Kick-off: 19.00 (local time); 03.00 (NB Sunday, BST)
Coverage: in Canada TSN1 / TSN5 and livestreamed on TSN+; in the UK on BBC iPlayer; elsewhere on rugbypass.tv. Let’s hope it’s uninterrupted transmission this time.
