USA Women hold on to beat England

The USA Women’s Selects held on to take a memorable 25-24 win over England Academy in their Tuesday evening fixture at Newbury. Two tries from Evan Hoese inspired the win, with Courtney Kuehl’s long-range effort sealing the victory.

England had the advantage in the opening minutes, running up a 14-3 lead through tries from Bryony Cleall and Georgie Lingham. The first came from close range after the a dominant scrum, the second from an errant USA pass in their own end. Ellie Green converted both with Megan Foster’s penalty goal putting the USA on the board.

A line break from Joyce Taufa set Hoese away for her first try. Foster added the extras, and then Lingham was sent to the bin for a dangerous tackle. The USA took full advantage of the extra attacker with Taufa getting the touchdown herself this time to secure a one-point lead at the break.

An overlap put Ellie Underwood into the corner for a score not long after the restart, but it was erased by Hoese, the winger taking a Darian Lovelace offload in for her second. Kuehl showed her pace with a break from halfway to put the visitors in the lead.

The dying minutes saw England attacking the USA line until finally replacement hooker Hannah West went over in the corner. It proved too difficult a conversion, however, and a knock-on with England in possession brought the final whistle before the difference could be made up.

Dublin will be the final stop on the tour, with a test match against Ireland at Energia Park on Sunday.

 

SCORING

ENGLAND 24
Tries – B. Cleall (2’), G. Lingham (11’), E. Underwood (49’), H. West (78’)
Cons – E. Green 2/4 (3’, 12’)
Yellow cards – G. Lingham (33’)

USA 25
Tries – E. Hoese 2 (25’, 52’), J. Taufa (35’), C. Kuehl (66’)
Cons – M. Foster 1/4 (26’)
Pens – M. Foster 1/1 (8’)

 

TEAMS

ENGLAND ACADEMY
1 Bryony Cleall, 2 Clara Nielson, 3 Sasha Acheson, 4 Rowena Burnfield (capt.), 5 Rosie Galligan, 6 Katherine Hobson, 7 Poppy Leitch, 8 Elizabeth Crake, 9 Megan Davey, 10 Ellie Green, 11 Georgie Lingham, 12 Lauren Cattell, 13 Shauna Bennett, 14 Ellie Underwood, 15 Olivia Jones

Replacements: 16 Hannah West, 17 Detysha Harper, 18 Chloe Edwards, 19 Amelia Buckland-Hurry, 20 Rownita Marston, 21 Caity Mattinson, 22 Beth Blacklock, 23 Merryn Doidge

USA WOMEN’S SELECTS
1 Nick James, 2 Katy Augustyn (capt.), 3 Melissa Finkelstein, 4 McKenna Strong, 5 Alycia Washington,6 Joyce Taufa, 7 Kristine Sommer, 8 Darian Lovelace, 9 Carly Waters, 10 McKenzie Hawkins, 11 Sarah Levy, 12 Megan Foster, 13 Cortney Kuehl, 14 Evan Hoese, 15 Jennine Duncan

Replacements: 16 Joanna Kitlinski, 17 Azniv Nalbandian, 18 Tiana A’au, 19 AnnaKaren Pedraza, 20 Meya Bizar, 21 Kimber Rozier, 22 Kelsi Stockert, 23 Frankie Sands