March 6th, 2006

Canada Under 19s 20 England Under 19s 13

A brace of tries from Thirsk full-back Jo Watmore wasn’t enough for England Women Under 19s to claim a clean-sweep over their Canadian counterparts on Sunday night at Shawnigan Lake School on Vancouver Island.

The England young-guns headed into their second and final clash against the Canadians looking to match their convincing 27-5 victory on Thursday night. The game, however, didn’t go their way and instead Canada stopped England from playing with the same freedom they had in the first match. Canada also dominated in the breakdown and pressurized the backs into some heavy defending.

Neither side created a dominant platform in the early exchanges of the game although Canada began to muscle their way into the game midway through the first-half and eventually it was the hosts who took the first points with a 19th minute Candice Barry penalty.

The game, however, continued to lack the fluidity of the first encounter and the first-half was littered with errors. After several attempts Canada finally breached the England defence with a try after 36 minutes from backrow forward Jennifer Kish to put Canada into an 8-0 lead at half-time.

But England weren’t left downhearted and after the restart and six changes to the starting line-up they returned to the field with a point to prove.  Canada’s lead was initially reduced through an early penalty, converted by Sudbury centre April Brown.

Canada soon bounced back though and found their stride to continue where they left off in the first-half, scoring a second try after 46 minutes by full-back Ashley Patzer. Sustained pressure and good handling saw England outflanked on the left wing, which led to Canada’s score. Fly-half Barry added the conversion to hand Canada a 15-3 lead.

Canada continued their dominance especially around the breakdown where a combination of England mistakes and greater power ensured that they were afforded considerable amounts of ball. The consequence was that seven minutes later they touched-down for their third try, this time for wing Ghislane Landry.

But the 20-3 deficit certainly worked to spur England’s young guns into action. Watmore, who came on as a replacement for Meg Youden, kicked ahead from the midfield. A misjudgement from the Canadian fullback allowed Watmore to successfully follow up her own kick and collect to beat her opponent and touch down in the corner. 

Watmore’s score inspired some fierce rivalry and consequently both teams battled for their share of possession but both Canada and England were held at bay by their opponent’s strong defence. England in particular were held up over the line after a series of  five metre scrummages and it wasn’t until the 39th minute that Canada’s defence was finally broken with Watmore again holding the key. A well-worked move in the backs saw the full-back score in the corner for her second try and England’s final score.
 
England Women’s Academy Coach Gary Street said: “This is a disappointing result after our performance in the first game. The Canadians played well and deserved their victory.

“However overall I am really pleased with the way the girls have performed on and off the pitch and I feel that it has been a valuable part of their development. There are many positives that have been gained from the tour and the players have developed both individually and as a group. For all the players these were the most difficult games they have ever played and it’s a great learning curve for them. They will all go away from here knowing the areas that they have to work on.”

England Under 19s captain Ollie Poore added: “We are all very disappointed by Sunday’s result but we all gave 100 percent. The games have been very hard, harder than most of us have ever played in before so this has been an amazing learning experience. The tour has been fantastic and we have enjoyed it enormously.”

England Women Under 19s: 1 Laura Keates (Worcester, sponsored by Calor Gas & Poores and Oppo Music Coffee House), 2 Ollie Poore (Lichfield, sponsored by Calor Gas & Poores) (C), 3 Roz Crowley  (Lichfield, sponsored by Calor Gas & Poores), 4 Sara Anastasi (Henley, sponsored by The WRT Group), 5 Aimee Procter (Chester, sponsored by Flowcrete UK Ltd), 6 Hannah Shield (Thirsk, sponsored by The Stephen Brown Trust), 7 Kate Hall (Blaydon, sponsored by Morpeth RFC/Dodd and Co, Accountants/Acklington Mart/Ward Hadaway), 8 Helen Clewer (Thirsk, sponsored by The Stephen Brown Trust), 9 Cathy Freeman (Fullerians, various sponsors), 10 Tina Lee (Richmond, sponsored by Richmond RFC); 11 Fiona Pocock (Petersfield, sponsored by Dowers Bespoke Kitchens), 12 April Brown (Sudbury, various sponsors), 13 Justina DeBrett (Crawley, sponsored by East Grinstead RFC), 14 Holly LeGrave (Basildon, sponsored by Essex County RFU); 15 Meg Youden  (Chester, various sponsors). Replacements: 16 Stephanie Cousins (Worcester, sponsored by Calor Gas & Poores), 17 Kelly Wallis (Thirsk, sponsored Vitalograph, Philips Auto and Druid Pubs), 18 Lucinda Howland (Folkestone, sponsored by Boedromion Ltd), 19 Samantha Cornborough (Richmond, sponsored by Richmond RFC), 20 Francesca Matthews (Camberley, sponsored by Chloride Group plc), 21 Sara McKenna (Fullerians, sponsored by Waitrose Ltd), 22 Joanne Watmore (Thirsk, sponsored by PPL Sport & Leisure)

England Under 19s Tries: Watmore (2)
Conversions:
Penalty: Brown

Canada Under 19s Tries: Kish, Patzer, Landry
Conversions: Barry
Penalty: Barry

Ends…