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Sun 10 Aug 2014 | 02:37
France are top seeds as New Zealand go out of Women's Rugby World Cup

6
Comments

The final day of pool play at the Women's Rugby World Cup decided the four sides that will go through to the semi-finals in Paris on Wednesday, August 13th. Ireland will play in their first ever semi-final, against England, while hosts France take on Canada.

The French side beat Australia 17-3 to finish top of Pool C, while Ireland beat Kazakhstan to top Pool B. That, combined with England and Canada's 13-13 draw, meant that for the first time in the tournament's history, New Zealand will not take place in the semi-finals.

"It's hugely gutting and we're all down about it. But at the end of the day, we had our fate in our hands in the game against Ireland and we didn't nail that and we didn't play well enough that day," said Black Ferns coach Brian Evans.

"We knew the result of the Canada v England game so it was pretty hard. We didn't tell the players unless they asked, so some of them knew and full credit to them because they performed really, really well even knowing that we were out. But the rest of the team we left it 'til afterwards."

England qualified as top of Pool A, with Canada as the best runners up.

"Ireland are a side we know extremely well from playing them in the Six Nations so this is a clash we are really excited about. They play a fast, expansive game and we have now got three days to prepare for this semi-final," said England coach Gary Street.

"With hosts France and Canada into the other semi-finals, I think this is a really exciting line-up for the knock out stages of the Rugby World Cup."

View the highlights from all the other matches on page two of this post

 

 

 

 

Posted By: Grant Constable

6 Comments

  • stubby
    11:32 PM 15/08/2014

    ANNNNNNDDD Canada beats France to get to the final. Muahahahahahaha.

  • drg
    9:17 PM 11/08/2014

    Just to confirm, my example was more something I'd seen in mens rugby rather than the womens, it was just serving as an example of when PT's are awarded for repeat offences.

    :)

    +1 on your comment!

  • 10stonenumber10
    3:00 PM 11/08/2014

    Rwaah, wrong button, sorry for the double post.

    Going a score down bucks your ideas up and 'tightens the defensive belt' so to speak, it forces the offending team to chase a score rather than wind a clock down, play more rugby, not BATTLESTATIONS until they are back on the field!!

  • 10stonenumber10
    2:58 PM 11/08/2014

    To be fair, i've watched quite a bit of women's rugby, the scrum tends to be quite well marshalled and fairly controlled, most of the whistled offences are hands in the ruck rather than crashing a scrum down. A call like that also dissuades teams from trying any more funny stuff at ruck and scrum time too.

    Either way, it happened, all 30 players played all 80 minutes, and it was end to end stuff. I'd rather see calls like that more often than the quick fire yellows we have in the men's game. 10 minutes is 10 minutes, and can be defended, top teams train for these situations specifically, but a try is 7 points. In the long run it adds to the points against/for, and has a greater influence on discipline for the remainder of the tournament than a cynical breather on the side lines.

    Better it happened in a pool game than a final, but i'm still backing that 50/50 call.

  • drg
    2:33 PM 11/08/2014

    Penalty tries for repeated infringements are quite common because the referee can take a view that the offending team cannot legally defend against what will inevitably be a try and therefore have to resort to illegal tactics.

    It's a bit like collapsing scrums on the 5m line two or three times even if the opposition doesn't get a nudge on. e.g
    1.The ball goes in and the defending team collapse the scrum
    2.Referee resets, the ball goes in and the defending team collapse the scrum
    3.Referee warns team to stay on their feet, resets, ball goes in and the defending team collapse the scrum.
    4.Referee awards penalty against defending team. Attacking team chooses scrum.
    5. Ball goes in, defending team collapses AGAIN.
    6. Penalty try...and/or yellow card to one of the props..



  • 10stonenumber10
    3:30 AM 11/08/2014

    Bloody hell. Coaches and players take note, that first hit by the 15 was absolutely 'textbook'. Field position, body position, head on the right side, solid hit and straight onto her feet to go for the ball. Shame it ended in a penalty at the ruck, but if the hit wasn't made it could have easily been 7 points.

    At first I wasn't sure about the penalty try call. It made sense when I realised it was a pool decider. A yellow card opens up a whole lot more scoring opportunities. The teams were evenly matched, games are too frequently won and lost because of a card, rather than tip the balance and potentially put in a cricket score, it let the players decide the outcome instead of the ref. Good call, 'in the spirit of the game'.

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