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Women's Rugby World Cup in Edmonton (or Hookers in Tight Shirts and Short Shorts)

aznboi9

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May 3, 2005
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Canada lost to the reigning World Champions, the New Zealand Black Ferns yesterday in the Women's Rugby World Cup opening match. The final score was 66-7 in which the Ferns delivered quite a dominating performance and threw their gauntlet into the ring for the rest of the tournament teams to take notice.

I watched the game on the Score and it really was a game of women vs girls as the Black Ferns had control of the match from the outset and pretty much scored at will. They ran with a pace and strength that the Canadian women (seeded fourth) really couldn’t handle for some reason and had no answer for. Watching the game, we had a problem of over committing to the rucks and mauls which led to numerous overlap opportunities (like odd man rushes in hockey) that, given the speed and skill of the Ferns, was pretty much lethal. Additionally, it seemed like the Canadian backs were guilty of pinching in from outside-in a lot; I don’t know if they were coached to do this (and it seems like a bizarre strategy if they were), but it ended up contributing to the problem as it was easily recognized and exploited. Of course, there was unfortunately a lot of T-shirt and arm tackling on the part of the Canadians which, if not corrected, will definitely ensure an early exit from the tourney.

Offensively, our girls were unable to generate much due to, in part, to an inability to retain possession and run with any pace; but this could be credited to the aggressive defense and tackling of the Black Ferns which was very affective in disrupting the Canadian attack. The Canadians did have some instances of positive play where they were camped in the New Zealand end for brief periods as well as some good individual efforts (half-back Julia Sugawara scored a brilliant try that was reminiscent of Morgan Williams in Mens' Rugby World Cup '99). Hopefully, they’ll be able to build on that for their next match.

On a side note, I was impressed by the level of play that was on display, especially by the Lady Blacks. Even if the speed was a step slower than the men’s game, the skill level shown was very high as the girls threw and kicked the ball around with an ability that was on par with any men’s game and was very entertaining to watch.

Canada’s next match will be against Spain (should be a much easier opponent) on Monday, Sept 5 at the St.Albert Rugby Football Club; kick-off at 5pm (MT, I think). Alternatively, I believe the Score is showing the games live as well. Hope some of you Edmontonians can make it out to support our girls and take in some entertaining and fun rugby.





(Not from the Canada-New Zealand Match; but nice tits! :) )
 

HaywoodJabloemy

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Mar 6, 2004
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Never the safest place

aznboi9

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May 3, 2005
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Update...

The Canadian women vented some frustration from last weeks defeat to New Zealand by routing Spain 79-0 yesterday. They scored 13 tries to none with Alberta’s Maria Gallo (the girl in the naked pic above) scoring five on her own from the wing, vaulting her to become the third leading scorer in tournament play. I didn’t see the game; but from what I’ve read, our ladies played with better pace on the ball, spinning it out to the backs with aplomb. Reportedly, there’s still some room for improvement as the girls were guilty of committing some handling error’s (which could have meant a larger score) and still showed some weakness in the tackle.

At any rate, the Canadian women have made a huge step towards qualifying for the semifinals. They currently sit sixth in the standings, in a rather odd tournament format, and will need the US and New Zealand to defeat Australia and Scotland, respectively, while defeating Kazakhstan by a fairly large margin of victory (by at least 23 points I figure) in order to move on to the championship round. Not the greatest scenario, but one that is very attainable.

Next game is on Sept 8th, at 2:30pm at Ellerslie Rugby Park, Edmonton





Not from the match, but nice body...
 

hornyitalian06

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May 5, 2006
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I hope the girls do well in the next game.
 

aznboi9

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May 3, 2005
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Canada qualifies for semi-finals!

Canada defeated Kazakhstan 45-5 in a tough, physical match on Friday afternoon. The large score line coupled with losses by Scotland and Australia (God bless America!) meant that our ladies came through and secured a berth into the semi-finals. Additionally, a surprise English victory over France on the same day propelled Canada to the third spot over the French by virtue of a more favourable points differential (points for vs points against).

As in the Spain game, the Canadian women scored early and often, racking up four tries within the first 15 minutes of play and securing the much valued bonus point. Reportedly, they ran the Kazakhstan women hard such that, by half-time they trotted off the field with a commanding 31-0 lead.

The Kazakhstan women were able to settle themselves down during the break and gave a much more determined effort in the second half, playing with the gritty defense for which they were developing a reputation. However, it was too late at that point and our girls came away with the victory, having accomplished their end of the bargain for making the semis. PEI’s Heather Moyse ended the game with four tries, putting her in a tie with England’s Sue Day for the tournament scoring lead, at six tries each.

The semi-finals will therefore be 3rd place Canada facing off against 2nd place finisher England while top seed New Zealand takes on 4th place France in the other semi. Thank goodness, England beat France or Canada would have had to play the Black Ferns again; as such, our girls actually have a chance to finish as high as 2nd. It appears Canada will have their hands full with the English as they, by all accounts, have taken a page from the English Men’s Team’s book and have a very forward dominated style of play. Canada vs England will be played on Tuesday, September 12 at 5:00pm at Ellerslie Rugby Park, Edmonton. My God, I wish that they would show some of the games on tv; it’s the World Cup for pity’s sake.

Good luck to our girls.





ps: you can also see video highlights from some of the matches here.
 

souljacker

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Dec 14, 2005
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Damn is that ever cool! Who knew our girls were so good? I wish they televised this... Rugby is one of the few sports that I actually think is fun to watch (along with hockey, soccer, and, umm, I can't think of any others that I enjoy watching). Not only that, it's one of the few sports that requires all of the players to be well-rounded athletes, rather than just being good at one particular thing. And our girls are doing AWESOME!!!! Woo! :cool:
 

aznboi9

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May 3, 2005
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So close...

Our Canadian women came within a converted try of making the Women’s Rugby Cup Final in a heartbreaker today, losing to England 20-14. In a rematch of the 2002 semifinal in Barcelona, they went blow for blow with the English in what was, apparently, a slugfest.

Reportedly, England’s forwards were dominant, as expected, and gave our girls a lot of problems in the scrums which led to a majority share of ball possession and territory in the first half of play. However, the Canadian lasses played with a strong commitment to defense and held firm, frustrating the English attack and being fortunate to only be down 8-0 at the half.

Defensive breakdowns in the second half led to England adding to their score line; however, Regina’s Julie Foster put Canada on the board after a 70 m run by PEI’s Heather Moyse (this girl seems to be all over the place). England seemed to put the game out of reach with a try in the later stages; but the girls answered back with a try by Moyse who got the ball from Burnaby’s Julia Suguwara to set up a tense finish.

By all accounts, our women threw everything but the kitchen sink in the last 5 minutes of the game trying to get the winning score and almost completed the comeback when, who else, Moyse made a break but was stopped just 5 m from the try line by a desperation tackle from England’s Kim Shaylor.

In the end, it wasn’t meant to be. But congratulations have to go to our girls for doing us proud and playing with a lot of heart and pride. Women’s rugby has come a long way in this country and that appears to be especially evident by the efforts of the women representing us, who have done better than any team previous. Our girls will now have to regroup after a tough loss and prepare to take on France in the bronze medal match this Sunday, 2:30 at Commonwealth Stadium.

Today’s match, which was supposedly extremely entertaining, wasn’t shown today but will be played this Friday on The Score, 3:30 pm ET (New Zealand vs France is being aired at 9:30 am ET). I’m still pissed about that, fuckin’ bastards. It’s the fuckin’ semifinals, for Christ’s sake. Would it kill them to show it live, for just a one time event, in lieu of the hot and heavy action of texas hold’em?









 

aznboi9

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May 3, 2005
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Quelle dommage...

Well, it was a good run; but, unfortunately, ended somewhat on a sour note as Canada lost 17 – 8 to France in the bronze medal match (New Zealand defeated England 25-17 for their third straight title). From what I’ve read, the effort was there; but our girls were let down by a lack of execution on offense, dropping a lot of balls and, therefore, giving a lot of possession back to les belles filles de France. Mistakes and penalties turned out to be costly, allowing the French to score first (10-0), forcing the Canuckettes to play catch-up for the entire match. Edmonton’s Maria Gallo and Surrey’s Kelly MacCallum (capt.) made it close (10-8) in the second half with a try and penalty, respectively; but France salted away the victory with a try in the final minutes, putting the game out of reach.

In the end, Canada finished fourth, the same result as the 2002 World Cup in Spain. There seems to be some disappointment as a third, or even second place, finish was not out of the question. But our ladies can take pride in the fact that they had made great strides in improving their level of play over the years. In 2002, the girls played the exact same teams (England and France) in the semis and bronze medal matches; but had lost by considerably larger margins (53-10 and 42-10, respectively). The fact that they not only narrowed the margins of victory but even came close to winning against the same teams this year should provide some hope and optimism for the future.

However, there is still quite a bit of work to be done. I did watch the England/Canada match on tape delay and it seems that the areas that let Canada down against England played a role in their match against France. From what I saw, there is still a large gap in the level of skill between Canada and other ‘elite’ rugby nations. Basic skills like fielding balls, ball retention in contact and body positioning in the tackle were shown to be performed at a significantly lower level than the England players. In the first half of the semi-final, I don’t think our girls were able to cycle the ball past two phases of play, which is a big reason for England enjoying the lion’s share of possession. That just won’t do at that level.

That being said, there are a lot of bright spots. There were some great examples of individual play, such as Heather Moyse whenever she got the ball (she was named to the tournament All-Star XV and has to be one of the fastest players in the world), or Julia Suguwara who still amazed me at the way she was able to handle herself with the pressure she was under from England’s pack. But most importantly, the girls’ commitment to giving their damn hardest effort on each and every play was indeed heroic. They truly displayed a yeoman type work ethic out on the field and should give any rugby supporter reason to be proud.

Next up, Men's Rugby World Cup 2007 in France.



 

hornyitalian06

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May 5, 2006
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anzboi9, thank you for updated information on womens rugby team. Rugby is a tough sport. I think our Canadian girls did a great job and they came close to getting a medal.
 

aznboi9

Don't mind me...
May 3, 2005
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Here Be Monsters
hornyitalian06 said:
anzboi9, thank you for updated information on womens rugby team. Rugby is a tough sport. I think our Canadian girls did a great job and they came close to getting a medal.
No problem, thanks for reading. I think our girls did really well also and should have gotten kudos for it.
 
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