England fulfilled a nation’s wishes by seeing off a determined effort by Canada to topple them.
Once again the side destined to lose scored first.
When Amy Cokayne missed her line-out target, Canada exploited the error so well that Asia Hogan-Rochester flew over the line once more. (0-5)
Barely three minutes later Ellie Kildunne received a pass in an unpromising position. A couple of wriggles and she was through. She accelerated right, stepping past what seemed like half the population of Canada and scored under the posts. (7-5)
Just like that.
From there England held the steering wheel steady for most of the game. Their decisive advantage lay at the scrum; their Canadian opponents, so devastating till now, couldn’t force the issue.
Emily Tuttosi had problems at the line-out which mostly went well for the home side. Abbie Ward and Zoe Aldcroft are mistresses of that art.
Canada were finding it hard repeating their stunning ruck-speed, which had lit up the tournament to this point. England tackled like tigers, giving the dangerous Justine Pelletier few chances to show her slippery skills.
England’s next try followed a surprise move, a deliberate line-out overthrow, straight into Tatyana Heard’s hands. She galloped ahead. From the ensuing scrum the pack produced another unstoppable drive, and Cokayne scored. (14-5)
Another imperfect Canadian line-out saw England over the line, but the TMO’s verdict was ‘held up’. The 500th time this season?
More pressure brought a third try. Behind a scrum Mo Hunt sniped, was held but turned to give Alex Matthews an offload that she took over the line – eleven years since her first appearance in an RWC.
No more scores up to the break, though the TMO had to bring his new toy into play to prevent a fourth England try – obstruction at the preceding line-out.
Half-time: England 21 Canada 5
With England’s undoubted bench strength a Canadian comeback looked unlikely. But they kept fighting to the end, as everyone expected.
Another fumbled line-out almost brought a fourth try against them, but Kabeya infringed with a ‘holding-on’.
The pack hammered again, and this time Ward made up for that line-out miss at Eden Park with a try. Daughter Hallie was pleased. (26-5)
Fortunes swung as Hannah Botterman was shown the only yellow card of the day for lifting an opponent too high in a tackle.
The immediate result was a second try for the irrepressible AHR. (26-13)
Could the Maple Leafs mount a real charge? Not during Botterman’s absence, though they had several chances as they drove at the England line. Sarah Hunter can be pleased with her job as defence coach. The tackles kept thundering in.
On one occasion the Canadians were a metre short of the line in their umpteenth phase, when Aldcroft found the lying unattended at her feet. She picked it up and Hunt cleared. Another gilt-edged chance gone.
With new faces appearing, spurred on by Olivia Apps, Canada increased the pressure once more. But time was running out, and that led to unwanted errors.
At a scrum Hollie Davidson awarded England a rare free-kick (not a penalty). Zoe Harrison sent a kick sky-high that the defences failed to deal with. Quick reactions from Lucy Packer helped give Matthews her second try of the day.
“Swing low” echoed around the ground. England had won.
Result: England 33 Canada 13
Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)
Attendance: 81,885
Teams
England: 15 KILDUNNE 14 DOW 13 JONES 12 HEARD 11 BREACH 10 HARRISON 9 N. HUNT 1 BOTTERMAN 2 COKAYNE 3 MUIR 4 TALLING 5 WARD 6 ALDCROFT (captain) 7 KABEYA 8 MATTHEWS
16 ATKIN-DAVIES 17 CLIFFORD 18 BERN 19 GALLIGAN 20 FEAUNATI 21 L. PACKER 22 AITCHISON 23 ROWLAND
Canada: 15 SCHELL 14 CORRIGAN 13 SYMONDS 12 TESSIER 11 HOGAN-ROCHESTER 10 PERRY 9 PELLETIER 1 M. HUNT 2 TUTTOSI 3 MENIN 4 DE GOEDE 5 O’DONNELL 6 CROSSLEY 7 PAQUIN 8 FORTEZA
16 BOAG 17 KASSIL 18 DEMERCHANT 19 BEUKEBOOM 20 ROYER 21 SENFT 22 APPS 23 SEUMANUTAFA
Afterthoughts
There are too many to offer here. Some must wait for later – but:
1. Top tier
I admit I never expected to see the top (third) tier of Twickenham Stadium filled. It was. So huge congratulations to the organisers for their courage and vision.
2, Even with the huge boost this tournament has given women’s rugby it’s hard to imagine any future finals day reaching over 50,000 spectators for what the French call the ‘petite finale’.
3. Awards
Player of the Match: Sadia Kabeya will be aware there was the hottest competition for that honour, but she deserved it.
Braxton Sorensen-McGee (Photo: New Zealand Rugby)
Sophie de Goede was rightly crowned World Player of the Year. Her contributions stand out every time she plays. Her team-mates lifted her high.
Braxton Sorensen-McGee was awarded the Breakthrough Player of the Year award. It meant that her young team-mate, Jorja Miller, missed out on both honours, but she was quick to embrace her. She is in line for an award before long.
