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Canada’s Maple Leafs development side defeated the USA Women’s Collegiate All-Americans by a score of 15-10 on Tuesday afternoon. The match was the first of two set to take place in Salt Lake City giving some of the top young players from each country a chance to impress the national selectors during the Women’s Rugby Super Series.
Lori Josephson brought her Maple Leafs side to within striking distance within the opening minutes but Canada couldn’t quite get points on the board. Instead it was the All-Americans who landed first through fullback Tess Feury, whose 19th minute penalty ended the deadlock of the opening quarter.
The Canadians responded immediately but for a forward pass to deny Colleen Irowa a try then Amanda Williams knocked-on with another score on offer. They finally made good with a wide ball that ended with Julia Goss crossing for the first try of the match.
Williams looked to be over with three minutes to the break but the final pass was again ruled forward. Elysa Sandron left no margins for discussion moments later, taking the ball through herself to score Canada’s second. A third came on the stroke of halftime when Alana Fittes finished off another Josephson line break to give the Maple Leafs a healthy 15-3 lead at the break.
Handling errors and a raft of substitutes denied either side scores for most of the second half. At last Taylah Pipkin put Kaitlyn Broughton over for a crucial score to make it a nail-biting conclusion. Another score never came, however, and the Maple Leafs came away victorious at the final whistle. The second match takes place on Saturday prior to the final round of the Women’s Super Series.
ALL-AMERICANS 10
Tries – K. Broughton (74)
Cons – T. Feury (75)
Pens – T. Feury (19)
MAPLE LEAFS 15
Tries – J. Goss (29), E. Sandron (38), A. Fittes (40)
USA ALL-AMERICANS
1 Rebekah Hebdon 2 Bridget Kahele 3 Azniv Nalbandian 4 Haley Schafer 5 Jennifer Johnson (capt.) 6 Yeja Dunn 7 Frieda Fetu’u 8 Ilona Maher 9 Kat Ramage 10 Gabby Cantorna 11 Francesca Sands 12 McKenzie Hawkins 13 Sarah Buonpane 14 Uzo Okoro 15 Tess Feury
16 Nicole Benedetti 17 Danielle Ordway 18 Kaitlyn Broughton 19 Megan Ro 20 Jessica Lewis 21 Bailey Johnson 22 Taylah Pipkin 23 Lanoira Duhart 24 Katie Loughran 25 Elizabeth Rose 26 Ally Day
CANADA MAPLE LEAFS
1 Colleen Irowa 2 Kathleen Keller 3 Chelsey Minter 4 Emma Taylor 5 Camille Provencal-Aube 6 Katie Svoboda 7 Sara Svoboda 8 Daria Keane 9 Lori Josephson (capt.) 10 Mackenzie Higgs 11 Elysa Sandron 12 Julia Goss 13 Amanda Williams 14 Natasha Smith 15 Alanna Fittes
16 Simone Savary 17 Megan Copeland-Dinan 18 Brittany Kassil 19 Gillian Boag 20 Ngalula Fuamba 21 Gabrielle Senft 22 Justine Pelletier 23 Jess Neilson 24 Lisa Guathier 25 Petra Woods 26 Gillian Allen
