AUCKLAND, New Zealand — England turned on
the power to rout South Africa 75–0 in Auckland on Sunday and set up a
quarter-final against Australia as the last eight line-up was decided at the
women’s
Rugby World Cup.
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A rampant England showed why they are tournament
favorites in muscular display where forwards scored 12 of their 13 tries.
Earlier, Canada beat the US 29–14 and Italy defeated
Japan 21–8 to also book quarterfinal berths.
While they scored more tries and points than any
other team, England will take a third seeding into the quarter-finals behind
hosts New Zealand and Canada as they failed to earn a bonus point in last
week’s 13–7 defeat of France.
It means they will face the sixth-seeded Wallaroos
next week, while the other quarter-finals will be between teams who have
already met each other in pool play.
The top-seeded Black Ferns will face Wales,
second-seeds Canada will repeat Sunday’s match against the USA, and France will
play Italy.
Wales and the USA advanced as the two best
third-placed finishers while Fiji, Japan, Scotland, and South Africa were eliminated
from the 12-team tournament.
England’s formidable run of 28 straight wins
continued despite several of their senior stars being rested on Sunday.
One of the players making a tournament debut was
lock Rosie Galligan, who scored a hat-trick of tries, while there were doubles
for hooker Connie Powell and replacement flanker Sadia Kabeya.
Captain Marlie Packer was unapologetic about relying
on power to quell the winless South Africans, saying it was the sort of rugby
needed to win knockout matches.
“We’ve worked on stuff in training from the France
game. There were a lot of changes, a lot of first starts in a World Cup for
some of these players,” she said.
“We can take a lot from this and build into the
quarter-finals now. I’m super happy.”
Canada also employed forward power to see off the US
29-14, and captain Sophie de Goede hoped it will work again next week against
the same opposition.
“There’s a huge history between Canada and the USA
in all sorts of sports but women’s rugby for sure,” she said.
“I’m really proud of the physical output that we put
in today. An emphasis for us before the game was really fronting up.”
Canadian hooker Emily Tuttosi bagged one of the five
tries to remain the tournament’s top try-scorer, with six.
Earlier, a record-breaking day for center Michela
Sillari lifted Italy into the playoffs for the first time.
Sillari became the highest points scorer for her
country, with an 11-point haul lifting her to 40 career points, surpassing the
33 of previous record-holder Michela Tondinelli.
Italy’s hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals
were challenged when Japan leveled the score at 8–8 with half an hour remaining
but Sillari stepped up to land her second of three penalties to give her team
momentum at a decisive time.
Despite Italy making history, coach Andrea Di
Giandomenico was unimpressed with elements of their play.
“We are happy of course, but we have work to do,” he
said.
“There was no control in the match. Congratulations
to Japan, but for us, we lost possession and lost control too much.”
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