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The United States credit 'a little more belief' for RWC win over Japan
By AAP
The U.S. have bounced back from their opening Women's Rugby World Cup loss to Italy by beating Japan 30-17 in Group B action in Whangarei.
The United States have finally clicked into gear with almost three quarters of the match behind them to beat Japan 30-17 and boost their quarter-final hopes at the Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Japan produced an outstanding performance to lead 5-3 at halftime after facing a strong wind through the first spell.
The U.S. seized their first lead with a try to Joanna Kitklinski in the 45th minute but Japan responded with a five-pointer to winger Hinano Nagura to lead 10-8 with 30 minutes remaining.
After a 22-10 loss to Italy in the first round of group matches last weekend, the Americans had to win in Whangarei to keep their chances alive of progressing to the knockout rounds.
The U.S. attack was sluggish in the first 50 minutes but it finally came together and finished with three tries and 17 unanswered points.
Japan winger Komachi Imaguchi scored a brilliant solo try four minutes from fulltime but the United States extended their lead with a late penalty.
"We just came out with a little more belief this time around," U.S. captain Kate Zackary said.
"We came here to have a performance today, we needed a performance and the girls showed up. We needed to shine in that second half and every player did, one through 23."
Japan are winless after two games in Group B, losing to Canada in their first match.
Later on Saturday, top-ranked England and fourth-ranked France will meet in Group C action. Both won their opening matches as expected; France impressive in a first-up 40-5 win over South Africa while England stole the show in last weekend's first round with an 84-19 thrashing of Fiji which enhanced their status as tournament favourites.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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