Canada overcome red card to defeat Wales

Canada overcame a first half red card to captain Olivia DeMerchant to earn a 24-7 win over Wales in Cardiff on Sunday. Superior fitness and relentless pressure resulted in four tries and 24 unanswered points in the second half to end the year on a high note.

Discipline was an issue for Canada early as repeat team infringements landed Tyson Beukeboom in the bin. From the resulting driving maul Carys Phillips went over with Elinor Snowsill’s conversion making it 7-nil to the home side.

Sabrina Poulin nearly conjured a try from nothing with a chip and chase, the ball just beating the flying winger to the dead ball line. Soon after a crunching hit from DeMerchant on Wales flanker Bethan Lewis came under review and was judged to be dangerously high resulting in the captain being sent off.

The Canadians were not discouraged and instead lifted the tempo. A rampaging run from Courtney Holtkamp down the left side put the Welsh defense on the retreat and when the ball came wide right a score appeared to be on as Poulin burst through but the final pass didn’t to go hand and the seven-point deficit held to the intermission.

Veronica Herrigan celebrated what she thought was a try early in the second half but the replay revealed an obstruction by Gabrielle Senft prior to the grounding. Points came at last when Holtkamp drove in under the post defense and though acting captain Alex Tessier missed the extras, Canada were now on the ascendency.

Numerous penalties conceded at the breakdown at last saw Phillips binned and with the teams now even on 14 players there was no stopping the Canadians. DaLeaka Menin powered through for the first try with Poulin scoring a classic winger’s effort with an in-and-out swerve to finish a second.

Pamphinette Buisa, who impressed as a second half replacement, would reach through three tacklers to score the fourth try. She would nearly make it a double just before full-time but was held up in-goal. The contest was well over, however, and Canada can now look towards building on their efforts as next year’s World Cup in New Zealand approaches.

 

SCORING

WALES 7
Tries – C. Phillips (10′)
Cons – E. Snowsill 1/1 (11′)
YC – C. Phillips (56′)

CANADA 24
Tries – C. Holtkamp (51′), D. Menin (61′), S. Poulin (64′), P. Buisa (68′)
Cons – A. Tessier 2/4 (62′, 69′)
YC – T. Beukeboom (9′)
RC – O. DeMerchant (33′)

 

TEAMS

WALES
1 Caryl Thomas (17 Cara Hope 62′), 2 Carys Phillips (16 Kat Evans 73′), 3 Cerys Hale (18 Donna Rose 62′), 4 Natalia John (19 Gwen Crabb 62′), 5 Georgia Evans, 6 Alisa Butchers, 7 Bethan Lewis (20 Alex Callender 54′), 8 Siwan Lillicrap (capt.), 9 Keira Bevan (21 Ffion Lewis), 10 Elinor Snowsill (22 Florence Williams 70′), 11 Caitlin Lewis, 12 Kerin lake, 13 Hannah Jones, 14 Lisa Neumann, 15 Robyn Wilkins (23 Megan Webb 70′)

CANADA
1 Olivia DeMerchant (capt.), 2 Veronica Harrigan (16 Emily Tuttosi 47′), 3 DaLeaka Menin (18 Alex Ellis 70′), 4 Tyson Beukeboom (19 Ngalula Fuamba 62′), 5 Emma Taylor (17 Brittany Kassil 39′), 6 Courtney Holtkamp, 7 Fabiola Forteza, 8 Gabrielle Senft (20 Pamphinette Buisa 53′), 9 Justine Pelletier, 10 Emily Belchos, 11 Paige Farries (23 Renee Gonzalez 53′), 12 Alex Tessier, 13 Sara Kaljuvee (21 Marie Thibault 70′), 14 Sabrina Poulin (22 Sarah-Maude Lachance 70′), 15 Elissa Alarie

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Aurélie Groizeleau (France)
Assistants: Beatrice Benvenuti (Italy) & Maria Giovanna Pacifico (Italy)
TMO: Claire Hodnett (England)