Rugby: France defeat Canada 23-8 in tight semi finals decider

August 28, 2024

France left their best performance till last in the pool stages of the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010 with a 23-8 victory over Canada to secure their place in the semi finals as Pool C winners.

Their win leaves an agonizing few hours ahead for Canada, who now have to wait to see if they will join them as the best second placed side.

Tries from Lucille Godiveau (2), Cyrielle Bouisset and Amandine Vaupre ensured France secured their much needed victory, after they failed to obtain bonus points in their earlier clashes with Scotland and Sweden.

France opened the scoring after only 10 minutes with a break from centre Sandrine Agricole leading to a quickly recycled ball allowing inside centre Godiveau to score in the corner, putting her side five points ahead.

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Canada, who had gone into the match on top of Pool C with a two-point advantage over France, responded almost immediately with a well-struck penalty from fly-half Anna Schnell following a sustained period of pressure within the French 22, reducing the deficit to 5-3.

Midway through the first half, French fly half Aurelie Ballon hit back and extended her side’s lead to 8-3, with a penalty after Canada were caught offside.

Lock Bouisset then added to the advantage after securing France’s second try of the afternoon. Good work from the French pack from a lineout deep in the Canadian 22 allowed the second row to crash over for a 13-3 lead.

Their advantage took a slight knock after France captain Agricole was sin-binned for illegally using her hands in the ruck. With the side down to 14 Canada made a prompt response, with number 8 Kelly Russell diving over the line from a five-metre scrum, bringing the score to 13-8 just before half time.

France started the second half full of pressure for Canada’s defence, with their third try of the game scored by flanker Vaupre following a lineout in the Canada 22, allowing the pack to drive over the try-line.

The half continued with both teams struggling to dominate, Canada seemingly frustrated by handling errors and France failing to gain territory with kicks falling short of touch.

With less than 10 minutes left to the game France broke through to see Godiveau run unchallenged through the Canadian defence, securing her second and France’s fourth try and picking up the bonus point in the process.

The end result of 23-8 left no way out for Canada, who must now wait to see whether they have done enough to secure the other semi final place or whether the likes of Australia or Ireland can rack up enough points to pip them to the best second placed spot.

Speaking after the game, Canada coach, John Long, said: “We had our times today. We showed that we can attack with the ball, but we just didn’t have the ball today and France did a great job of stopping us from playing.

“We’ll have to wait and see [if we reach the semi-finals]. It’s a case of hoping that the games go our way. It’s not in our hands anymore. You’ve got to play the best to win the World Cup, so it doesn’t matter who we face as long as we go through first and foremost.”

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Rugby: France defeat Canada 23-8 in tight semi finals decider

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