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‘Lots of positives’: Wallaroos show resilience in heavy loss to Canada
By AAP
The Wallaroos are urging fans to keep the faith after showing vast improvements in a series-opening 33-14 Pacific Four loss to classy Canada in Sydney.
Unbeaten against the Wallaroos since 2014, the Maple Leafs again proved too powerful and precise in a bruising forward battle at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
All five Canadian tries came from the front row as the Wallaroos failed to contain the visitors' deadly driving maul.
Jo Yapp's Australian side, though, were left heartened after showing significant strides since a last-up 45-7 defeat to Canada in Ottawa 10 months ago.
Only poor handling and an inability to bring electrifying wingers Maya Stewart and Desiree Miller into the game enough stopped world No.5 Australia from seriously threatening the fourth-ranked Canadians.
"Lots of positives to take away," Stewart said.
"Definitely glimpses of what we can do out there.
"Just some handling areas, some basic stuff. We'll crack that front door again and unlock our edges.
"There's only more in the tank, so stay with us."
The Wallaroos were unable to contain Canada's maul early, with hooker Sara Cline and prop McKinley Hunt both cashing in inside the opening 10 minutes.
Hunt's finish came off an incredible 22-metre drive.
Down 12-0 in less than as many minutes, the Wallaroos had to dig deep to stay in the contest.
And they did.
Powerhouse flanker Siokapesi Palu looked to have grabbed Australia's first try, after storming on to a nice inside pass from Stewart, only for the video referee to pick up a knock on earlier in the lead-up.
There was no denying Tania Naden shortly after when the Wallaroos dealt Canada a shot of their own medicine with a rolling maul strike off a clinical lineout win from Katie Leaney.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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