women
international women
When Claire Gallagher kicked the ball into touch at the end of Canada’s 26-26 draw with the Red Roses, there were whistles at Sandy Park.
A sell-out crowd in Devon wanted to see a winner. Everyone around the world was doing it. Even so, you could see the practicality of the third-ranked team in the world drawing for the first time against the team that beat them in the women’s competition. Rugby World Cup Final 2025.
It was amazing WXV Global Series meeting of two teams. From start to finish they went blow after blow. Luckily, we’ll get two more installments of these foes to do battle in October in Toronto and Ottawa.
In the opening 40 minutes, the scoreboard read 19-all for England’s Claudia Moloney-MacDonald and Canada’s DaLeak Menin, along with efforts from Lizzie Gibson and Hannah Botterman.
The second half was far more draining but nothing could separate the teams as scores from Bryony Field and Olivia Apps canceled each other out.
In the final quarter, it looked like it would England were on top. Inch by inch, the Red Roses made their way towards Canada try the line. That’s what made North America’s relief so abundant when Moloney-MacDonald knocked the ball home as he raced forward.
With the scrum set, Justine Pelletier fired the ball to Gallagher. One strike later and the game is over.
“On the pitch we wanted to go for the win,” De Goede told BBC Sport at full-time. “Comms came from the sideline to contact us. We trust our coaches and our staff – they probably have cooler heads at that point.”
“We support them and the series is alive. We have two more games and they are on Canadian soil. We can finally play them in Canada. We know the crowds will show up in Toronto and Ottawa.”
“We talked about it,” Rouet said. “We defended the last 20 minutes on our line and we couldn’t get out. I think it’s a conversation, we could have scored but we weren’t able to get out. We can think about it and see if we could have scored in a scrum in our 22m. I’m not sure.”
Now the focus is on those two test matches in Toronto and Ottawa. Yes, Canada is playing France meanwhile, the Red Roses will host the Black Ferns at Allianz Stadium, but each team’s WXV Global Series will be defined by their best-of-three.
Canada has shown again that it can hang with England. Just as there was a growing sense that Canada could finally beat the Black Ferns, there is now a sense that their 10-year wait to beat England could soon be over.
“It’s interesting,” Rouet said. “A draw is still a draw. What I like about the girls, after the game, they didn’t seem to be happy with it. I love this group and I want us to get a win against England, but we’ll get a draw today.”