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England came from behind to defeat Canada 24-15 at Loughborough on Sunday, in doing so repeating as Women’s u20 Tri-Nations Champions. The match brought a close to the tournament that saw the USA go winless in their two matches with Canada finishing with one win and one loss.
An evenly-matched first half saw only one score. After repelling several Canadian attacks, England used their kicking game to win territory and then the forwards went to work. At a 5-meter scrum Berlyn Seselja managed to disrupt Jodie Mallard, but the England scrumhalf scooped up the loose ball and slid through for a converted try on the stroke of halftime.
Canada came out firing in the second half. Their own pack made ground, coming just inches short with Emma Feldinger on hand to pick and reach the rest of the way. A second try came on a determined run from flanker Lizzie Gibson, with Shoshanah Seumanutafa adding the conversion and a penalty goal for a 15-7 lead.
The response from England was swift and relentless. A lineout drive ended with Ebony Jefferies touching down, a second awarded to Hollie Cunningham. It was the lineout yet again that yielded their fourth try, this one to replacement prop Jessica Thomas. Lucie Skuse added two conversions to wrap up the scoring.
England coach Jo Yapp was pleased with her team’s effort.
“Overall the tournament has been brilliant for the players’ development, being in this environment over two weeks and being able to play two games and back up those two games is a really important part of their learning so as a whole it’s been really important. You can see that in the way the girls have come together.
“In terms of this particular game, we knew Canada was going to be a tough encounter and that they are a strong and physical side. It was everything we expected it to be, we didn’t make it easy for ourselves at times and made quite a lot of mistakes but what we’re really proud of is the mental resilience that the players’ had. Even when we went down on the score sheet to come back and show belief we could turn it around is something we’re very happy with.”
The match in its entirety can be seen here.
SCORING
ENGLAND 24
Tries – J. Mallard, E. Jefferies, H. Cunningham, J. Thomas
Cons – L. Skuse 2
CANADA 15
Tries – E. Feldinger, L. Gibson
Cons – S. Seumanutafa
Pens – S. Seumanutafa
TEAMS
ENGLAND u20
1 Akina Gondwe, 2 Connie Powell, 3 Florence Long, 4 Iona Antwis, 5 Hollie Cunningham, 6 Ebony Jefferies, 7 Tabitha Copson (capt.), 8 Anya Richmond, 9 Jodie Mallard, 10 Lucie Skuse, 11 Cara Clarke, 12 Ellen Ramsbottom, 13 Phoebe Murray, 14 Beth Wilcock, 15 Carys Cox
Replacements: 16 Eleanor Febrey, 17 Lauren Leatherland, 18 Jessica Thomas, 19 Bryony Field, 20 Amelia Harper, 21 Flo Robinson, 22 Emma Hardy, 23 Megan Varley
CANADA u20
1 Idia Ihensekhien, 2 Claudia Fulton, 3 Maya Montiel, 4 Keegan Brantner (capt.), 5 Lyric Atchison, 6 Noemie Tremblay, 7 Lizzie Gibson, 8 Emma Feldinger, 9 Berlyn Seselja, 10 Alayna Scramstad, 11 Angie Olukunmi, 12 Shoshanah Seumanutafa, 13 Sarah-Maude Lachance, 14 Kally King, 15 Brogan Mior
Replacements: 16 Holly Phillips, 17 Hanna Nicholl, 18 Rori Wood, 19 Rayann D’Aguiar, 20 Callie Harder, 21 Justine Blatt-Janmaat, 22 Jasmine Baxter, 23 Maya Addai
