WXV

[Lobby]

Anyone watch the WXV 1 games last night and this morning?

England started with a predictable 40 point win over the USA, but were perhaps flattered by the final score (scoring 4 tries in the last 10 minutes will do that). For long periods England seemed out of sorts, with lots of handling errors and problems at the set piece. Inexplicably, England didn't contest the breakdown at any stage in the match, giving USA a free reign to steal and slow down England ball. When the passes did go to hand, England did score some excellent tries and Zoe Harrison's kicking from hand and place kicking was excellent. 61 - 21 is still a good start to their defence of the WXV title.

Canada look like a team reborn and thrashed France 46 - 24, scoring 7 tries in the process. Forwards and backs looked really good and were all clearly enjoying their rugby. Coming after their first ever victory over New Zealand in May, this is turning into a very good year for Canada. England will have to bring their A game against the Canadians on 13 October if they are to retain their title.

The biggest shock of the day though was Ireland beating the Black Ferns 29 - 27 Scott Bemand must be in line for Coach of the Year because the level of improvement he has brought to the Ireland women's team in just 12 months is nothing short of remarkable. Before he took over, Ireland were a shambles, failing to qualify for the last World Cup and coming a distant last in the 2023 Six Nations after being thrashed by every other nation. Since then they have beaten Scotland and Italy and thrashed Wales to finish 3rd in this year's Six Nations, qualified for WXV1 (they were in WXV 3 last year) and the World Cup, thrashed Australia 36 - 10 earlier this month, and now beaten the World Champions. What a year for them.

[Uncle fester]

Yeah, didn't see the Irish girls pulling off that result. There was a serious amount of pain from the previous clearout so hopefully all the new players are bedding in now.

[Raggs]

Saw the Eng USA game. USA could mostly match them for athleticism, but weren't there on tactics/skills. England with a reasonably comfortable win, but not one in which they could easily relax. Apart from one big error, the USA 12 was absolutely godlike, she was phenomenal!

[Sandstorm]

Oh, Women's XV Rugby! I thought WXV was a mixed-marshal arts event or something.

[clydecloggie]

Nice finish to the WXV3 match between Samoa and The Netherlands. Dutch leading 8-3 in the last play when Samoa score under the posts to level with an easy conversion to come...which is then charged down - 8-8 final result.

I watched the last 30 minutes and saw a pretty poor game of rugby, but the tension made up for it. Probably puts an end to Dutch hopes of qualifying for the RWC again after 20-odd years as they won't come close to beating Spain.

[Niegs]

I've been critical of Canada in the past for being boring and relying exclusively on forwards, with the odd break from a winger. But they played some of the best rugby on the day, imo! Their French (as in 'from France, not Quebec') coach has slowly got them to play in space, embrace the offload, and the forwards are benefiting too (Royer's second pick and go off a scrum break and vs scrambling defence). I don' think they'll have enough to beat first-choice England, but it'll be a great game.

France have looked weak all year, apart from rare moments of brilliance from the usual suspects. Seems like so many of their squad are average rather than world class.

Credit to Ireland for fighting hard and taking their chances - Aoife Wafer already world class!? But I think New Zealand under the old 7s coach have been the most boring I've seen them, even worse than their last NH tour. Pods aligned 'perfectly', stood off from each other, running predictable crashes. Playing out the back like RL teams, in an attempt to get Vaahakolo / Tui the ball, ignoring that Demant and the centres are all great carriers. Yet, their only bright spots came from the sort of natural off-the-cuff rugby they're known for ... Kennedy (formerly Simon) on a linebreak she should have put away, inside ball at the breakdown to Vaahakolo and Brunt taking on the line, finding Paul.

[ASMO]

Already got my tickets for the women's RWC final next year and the 3rd/4th place final too...should be a lot of fun and hopefully England fulfill their promise to get the trophy. It will be a farewell to a few players as well which will be nice, Marlie Packer, Emily Scarrett and probably Abbie Ward too.

[Guy Smiley]

Eng v NZ at the moment... I tuned in, watched NZ give away a scrum penalty, lose 30m and the resulting lineout... get lucky with a chip kick running too deep and choose a scrum over a 22m droppie...

and get folded in the scrum.

sigh

[Raggs]

England just look like they really enjoy playing. Having a lot of fun out there.

John Mitchell runs them with the attitude of handbrake off, but learn quickly.

[Lobby]

England just look like they really enjoy playing. Having a lot of fun out there.

John Mitchell runs them with the attitude of handbrake off, but learn quickly.

Under Mitchell there seems to be much more focus on playing good rugby and using England's world class backs to full advantage, rather than Simon Middleton's safety first driving mauls. All of England's 9 tries last night were scored by backs with 7 being scored by the lethal trio of Breach, Kildunne and Dow.

NZ really had no answer to those three and struggled to contain them whenever they attacked. They work so well together as well, as could be seen when they combined for Breach's second try.

The only slight worry is that this is the second game in a row when the opposition was able to defend England's few driving mauls very comfortably. I think the change to only allowing one stop before having to use it has made a big difference to its effectiveness, as you can no longer reset and then carry on driving.

I thought NZ were allowed quite a bit of leeway at the breakdown which another ref might have treated differently. There were a few turnovers where there didn't seem to be a clear release by the tackler before they went for the ball. There were also a few times where the NZ players got up and carried on running despite not releasing the ball and still being held. The NZ scrum half was also allowed to continue dithering for ages after she had been told to use it.

Overall though I thought NZ were much better than they were at Twickenham and also last week against Ireland. But England were also better than at Twickenham and against USA. The missed conversions (worth another 14 points) made the final score look a bit closer than the gulf between the two teams.

France are having a poor year, but they could still beat NZ next week if they play at their best.

England v Canada should be a cracker.

[Raggs]

England just look like they really enjoy playing. Having a lot of fun out there.

John Mitchell runs them with the attitude of handbrake off, but learn quickly.

Under Mitchell there seems to be much more focus on playing good rugby and using England's world class backs to full advantage, rather than Simon Middleton's safety first driving mauls. All of England's 9 tries last night were scored by backs with 7 being scored by the lethal trio of Breach, Kildunne and Dow.

NZ really had no answer to those three and struggled to contain them whenever they attacked. They work so well together as well, as could be seen when they combined for Breach's second try.

The only slight worry is that this is the second game in a row when the opposition was able to defend England's few driving mauls very comfortably. I think the change to only allowing one stop before having to use it has made a big difference to its effectiveness, as you can no longer reset and then carry on driving.

I thought NZ were allowed quite a bit of leeway at the breakdown which another ref might have treated differently. There were a few turnovers where there didn't seem to be a clear release by the tackler before they went for the ball. There were also a few times where the NZ players got up and carried on running despite not releasing the ball and still being held. The NZ scrum half was also allowed to continue dithering for ages after she had been told to use it.

Overall though I thought NZ were much better than they were at Twickenham and also last week against Ireland. But England were also better than at Twickenham and against USA. The missed conversions (worth another 14 points) made the final score look a bit closer than the gulf between the two teams.

France are having a poor year, but they could still beat NZ next week if they play at their best.

England v Canada should be a cracker.

The ruck was a mess, there was a turnover on the NZ 5m line with 2 NZ tacklers completely blocking the clearout and it was given in favour of NZ, Botterman had a moan at the ref for that one too.

I didn't rewatch, but I swear there were a few pick up through the ruck moves from a player who was nowhere near the back of the ruck.