England scrape by combative Canada

Canada came within a whisker of upsetting the World Champions, losing by a single point in a nail biting game at Ellerslie Park in Edmonton. A last gasp penalty kick from Andrea Burk sailed just wide of the posts much to the relief of England fans. Despite a number of unforced errors from both sides, the game was played with high intensity from start to finish.

After early field position was squandered by both teams, it was England who scored first. Rowena Burnfield stole a Canadian throw-in just inside their own 22m line and after one hit-up, the ball went wide quickly to find winger Kay Wilson in acres of space.

Burk replied with a penalty after some hard work from the Canadian forwards, but it was Wilson again who would cross shoftly after, and again the outside defense was found wanting. Burk ended a 15 minute stalement with her second goal to bring up the intermission with the score 10-6 in favor of England.

Canada took the lead through Amanda Thornborough just a few minutes following the break. After turning down multiple penalty chances for goal, the forwards powered to within a metre of the goal before the ball went wide through the hands to find the centre on a hard outside angle. Claire Allan’s despairing tackle wrapped up Thornborough’s heels, but she was just far enough to reach out and down the ball over the line.

The battle up front continued as both sets of forwards piled into each other. Eventually it was England who found some space, yet again on their right side, and this time the recipient was replacement hooker Amy Cokayne, loitering with intent on the wing.

Emily Scarratt failed with the conversion, but Burk was having a better day with the boot and nailed her third penalty goal from in front of the sticks with just under 10 minutes to play. A turnover after the kickoff gave Canada the possession they needed, and they worked their way into position for a tricky shot for the win, but it was not to be and England escaped with the win.

Heather Fisher was named player of the match for her heavy contribution up front, including several powerful charges with ball in hand and some strong tackling.

England finish the series with two wins from three, their only loss coming against New Zealand. Canada end up on the bottom of the tournament ladder, but introduced a number of new players to international rugby and will take heart from brave efforts against both New Zealand and England.

CANADA 14
Tries – A. Thornborough (46)
Pens – A. Burk 3 (20, 40, 71)

ENGLAND 15
Tries – K. Wilson 2 (15, 24), A. Cokayne (63)

CANADA
1 C. McEwan (C. Provençal-Aubé 76) 2 M.J. Kirby 3 D. Menin (O. DeMerchant 60) 4 C. Nelles 5 L. Russell (capt.) 6 B. Mervin 7 L. Blackwood 8 J. Murphy 9 C. Guthrie 10 J. Zussman 11 N. Smith 12 A. Burk 13 A. Thornborough 14 B. Waters (A. Tessier 60) 15 K. McNally

Not used: J. Folk, M. Samson, T. Beukeboom, E. Taylor, J. Neilson

ENGLAND
1 R. Clark (V. Cornborough 51) 2 V. Fleetwood (A. Cokayne HT) 3 J. Lucas (L. Keates HT) 4 T. Taylor 5 R. Burnfield (A. Scott 51) 6 H. Fisher 7 H. Gallagher (S. Hunter 69) 8 A. Matthews 9 L. Riley (B. Blackburn 64) 10 E. Scott 11 L. Thompson 12 C. Large (A. Reed 64) 13 C. Allan 14 K. Wilson 15 E. Scarratt (capt.)

Not used: S. McKenna