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'The party has started': Canada ecstatic after second place WXV 1 finish
By Jamie Wall
It was hard to keep the smiles off any Canadian faces at Go Media Mt Smart Stadium, after the side beat France 29-20 in their final WXV 1 match.
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The result, along with England’s big win over New Zealand later on that evening, meant that the Canadians finished second in the inaugural tournament.
“I’ll be honest with you: the vibes are high,” said wing Paige Farries, whose breakout from her own 22 early in the second half eventually led to a crucial Krissy Scurfield try.
“It’s nice to finish with some success, and we’re not going to get to see each other for six months. So I think this is the perfect way to end. And the party has started.”
Canadian coach Kevin Rouet is pleased with the way his side bounced back after a disappointing loss to England last weekend in Dunedin, especially the way they regrouped after being 10-0 down early against France.
“Yeah, we had a tough first 40 minutes. France was better than us for like almost 40 minutes, but we were still in the game,” he said.
“And I think I was proud of the girls we took at halftime in the second half was a bit of a game for us and I'm happy with that win against France. It was good for us to win against a top three team.
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“We know we were still in the game and we were against the wind. And if you don’t see that, but there was a lot of we so we knew if our kicking game was back as soon as we were going to put them on our side, we’re going to get to do mistakes and we’re going to enjoy that. And just like it’s our last 40 minutes, so we knew we have to give everything to just get the win. And they made the job after that. It was great to see that it was a very balanced game that came out of their system.”
Captain Sophie de Goede shared her coach’s emotions.
“Yeah, it’s really good to bounce back,” she said.
“We’ve been trying to be a top three team all year and we’ve had five chances at it now and so, you know, frustrating all four losses in the first four chances. But it’s nice to finish on a win and we’ll have six months to our clubs or to train on our own back home in Canada. And we’re mostly best friends, so we’ll stay in touch. Stay in contact, we’ll keep working on our rugby individually and then we’ll come back together.”
Flanker Sara Svoboda praised her side’s composure, especially when they were trailing at halftime.
“I think something we really hang our hats on is our ability to stay controlled and composed,” she said.
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“We have a lot of young girls in the squad that have brought a lot of energy that we can exploit in the second half. But we also have a lot of wise heads that have been around and seen a lot of high-level rugby, a few of like a couple of the girls have been in a few World Cups and although it is a new tournament where they’re not strangers to international rugby.”
Player of the match Fancy Bermudez, whose 66th-minute try ultimately was the difference maker for the Canadians, said that her first season in the national fifteen-a-side squad had been an excellent experience, even though she missed the first two WXXV 1 matches with injury.
“So coming to the fifteens program, it’s just the culture is just something special and I’ve felt really lucky to come in to such a great team. Just being in this environment, it makes it easy. Even like two weeks of not dressing was still made fun and so exciting and like the environment was still so electric. So, I’m just happy to be part of this team.”
