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'Every match between Canada and the USA is such a big rivalry for us.'
By Matt Merritt
Canada Women confirmed their second seed ranking for the Rugby World Cup quarter finals with an impressive 29-14 win over USA… to ensure their next game would be against USA.
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“Every match between Canada and the USA is such a big rivalry for us. We take a lot of pride in all of those games.” Captain Sophie de Goede said after the game. “And to have another opportunity to meet up with your ultimate rival is like ‘what more could you ask for?’ So, we’re really looking forward to it and they were incredible in their fight today and their physicality and so we know we’re just going to have to bring the same if not more to the table next week.”
De Goede was also clear on the takeaways from the game to ensure next weekend goes the same way for her team. “We can check all of the boxes on our list. We’ve got all three games wins in our pool with bonus points. So that’s definitely a positive takeaway. And then I think the way that we were able to respond, our set-piece wasn’t fully functioning the way that we’re used to and so I’m really proud of the way that we adapted to the way the game was going and were able to score in different manners.”
Canada coach Kevin Rouet echoed the positive response. “Yeah, there were some good moments today offensively and defensively. I’m pleased about that. But next game we need to do that for 80 minutes and not like a couple of times.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle and they showed that today. Our set-piece was not great today. We just proposed something else. So, I was pleased with the direction of the girls, but as soon as our set-pieces will be back for our next game, it’s going to be better.
“They have a lot of very good players in this team and when they start to play together, they are very dangerous. So, it took a lot of time to get the possession, but I was pleased with our defence.”
As for the players that caught Rouet’s eye? “For sure Alysha [Corrigan] she gets her first appearance in the Rugby World Cup and plays out the game. So, I was very pleased with her performance. I love the bench coming off as well. It’s just great to see that defensively they step up because people get tired. The wall bench was very great to see.”
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Despite one of their electric backs winning player of the match, Canada’s best weapon has been their driving maul and de Goede thinks it ties the team back to their roots. “It’s something we’ve been working on quite a bit. It’s kind of taking back the roots of that physicality. Where Canadian rugby came from is a strong set-piece, really upfront rugby. And that’s what we’re trying to bring in. If you think about the South African model 2019 Rugby World Cup, a little bit of that. And I think it’s been a really useful tool for us and we can still improve on it for sure. Like I think we saw that a little bit today and so we’ll go back and keep tweaking things so that it can be as close to perfection as possible.”
