Rouet, De Goede, and Holtkamp reflect on Canada's tough loss to England

Canadian coach Kevin Rouet lamented his side’s moments of indiscipline in their 45-12 WXV 1 loss to England in Dunedin. Red Roses hooker Lark Atkin-Davies was the main beneficiary of her side’s efficiency at set piece, scoring four tries off lineout drives.

“We needed a good performance for 80 minutes and we maybe played OK for 30 minutes. Even then offensively we didn’t score when we had to score. We have an issue with that aspect of our game.” Rouet said.

The Canadians did well to compete in the first half, even though they conceded a try in messy circumstances after only six minutes. A kick through by Holly Aitchison bounced away from the Canadian defenders to be grounded by Ellie Kildunne to open the scoring.

“I think we were silly with the first [try],” captain Sophie de Goede said.

“Then we got our feet back underneath us and were playing well, but then indiscipline and they kicked to the corner. It was frustrating to let that one in to end the half. It gave them a lot of momentum.”

England scored two tries just before the break, directly as a result of being given lineouts within striking distance. Rouet agreed that it was frustrating given how much ball Canada had in the first half.

“Yes for sure. As soon as they get a penalty, it’s a maul, from five metres out it’s tough to defend that. We failed on that, in a few key moments.”

Lock Courtney Holtkamp said that fixing those issues will be a key focus for next week.

“It’s on us as a team to know when to go into the breakdowns, to know when to try and poach the ball. We have to keep each other accountable, telling your team mates to keep hands off the ball, tapping them on the backside and getting them out of the ruck. Playing smarter, basically, it’s simple.”

One positive was that the Canadians followed through on a work on last week, which was to get more into the game in the opening stages.

“We’d really focused on the first 20 minutes,” Holtkamp said.

“England scored in the first few minutes, but overall that first half was really good. Tomorrow we’ll go over film and get right into training.”

De Goede said that on reflection, it was obvious where her side needed to improve.

“Our lineout, we need to get that sorted and adjust our maul defence. There were moments that were really good and we just need to finish those moments consistently.

“There’s a lot of belief in the group and I know we’re going to get there eventually. I was hoping that was going to be today but unfortunately credit to England, it wasn’t to be.”

Canada now have an extra day to prepare for their final WXV 1 match, against France next weekend in Auckland, another big challenge as France look to close in on winning the tournament.

“France is a top-three team, we will try and reach them and beat them. It’s not the same team as England but we will prepare for them, for sure,” Rouet said.