Two kinds of football, two kinds of results
The Golden Bears lost on Saturday. That was to be expected, but the way it happened is a little disappointing, primarily because from the sounds of it the Huskies didn't play very well either. It might sound like a decent performance to be down 2 at the half, and up 1 after three quarters, but when the scores are 2–0 and 6–5, it's somewhat less encouraging.
On the plus side, rookie running back Tendayi Jozzy ran for an impressive 172 yards on 29 carries. On the minus side, that accounted for 65 per cent of the team's net offense, and rookie quarterback Quade Armstrong was only 9 of 21 for 105 yards. When you get 172 yards from your running back and can only put six points on the board, you've got some work to do.
In much better news, the Panda-laden Canadian women's rugby team recovered from their annihilation at the hands of New Zealand by inflicting an even more thorough annihilation upon Spain on Monday, winning 79–0. Former Panda Maria Gallo had five tries to lead the scoring, while Katie Murray had one.
For much of the second half, watching this game was like watching a Sevens match—Canada would get the ball and just take off as if Spain only had seven players trying to stop them. Eight tries in one half of rugby is just an insane number.
Of course, every team in the world will look a lot better against Spain than they do against New Zealand, but nonetheless the turnaround from the opening game is amazing. Against the Black Ferns, Canada could do absolutely nothing right; they never made the first tackle on defense, and they always got stopped on the first tackle on offense. Against Spain, exactly the opposite was true—hell, in the second half Spanish tacklers were basically just a rumour. There was a lot more than than a change of opposition working in Canada's favour, to be sure.
The win means, incredibly, that Canada is now ahead on point differential going into their final game of the pool stage. That's important, as it's the first tiebreaker in the standings that will almost certainly see a logjam among the teams vying for third and fourth.
But here's the trick: they kind of need to do it again. If Canada is to have any hope of finishing second in the end, they need to finish above fourth to avoid playing New Zealand again in the semifinals. (Notice how I'm taking it as a depressing given that the Black Ferns will beat Scotland.) To do that, they'll need help: first, with three teams already at 10 points, they absolutely have to beat Kazakhstan on Friday and score at least four tries in the process to get that bonus point in order to reach 10. But even that might not be enough even to boost them into fourth (and a semifinal shot), let alone into third place (second is impossible because France and England play each other). With France at +57 and England at +84, and those two teams relatively evenly matched (though England is certainly the favourite), it will likely take another blowout on Canada's part to jump into third place.
Can they do it? Yes. Will they? I guess we'll see on Friday.
The Golden Bears lost on Saturday. That was to be expected, but the way it happened is a little disappointing, primarily because from the sounds of it the Huskies didn't play very well either. It might sound like a decent performance to be down 2 at the half, and up 1 after three quarters, but when the scores are 2–0 and 6–5, it's somewhat less encouraging.
On the plus side, rookie running back Tendayi Jozzy ran for an impressive 172 yards on 29 carries. On the minus side, that accounted for 65 per cent of the team's net offense, and rookie quarterback Quade Armstrong was only 9 of 21 for 105 yards. When you get 172 yards from your running back and can only put six points on the board, you've got some work to do.
In much better news, the Panda-laden Canadian women's rugby team recovered from their annihilation at the hands of New Zealand by inflicting an even more thorough annihilation upon Spain on Monday, winning 79–0. Former Panda Maria Gallo had five tries to lead the scoring, while Katie Murray had one.
For much of the second half, watching this game was like watching a Sevens match—Canada would get the ball and just take off as if Spain only had seven players trying to stop them. Eight tries in one half of rugby is just an insane number.
Of course, every team in the world will look a lot better against Spain than they do against New Zealand, but nonetheless the turnaround from the opening game is amazing. Against the Black Ferns, Canada could do absolutely nothing right; they never made the first tackle on defense, and they always got stopped on the first tackle on offense. Against Spain, exactly the opposite was true—hell, in the second half Spanish tacklers were basically just a rumour. There was a lot more than than a change of opposition working in Canada's favour, to be sure.
The win means, incredibly, that Canada is now ahead on point differential going into their final game of the pool stage. That's important, as it's the first tiebreaker in the standings that will almost certainly see a logjam among the teams vying for third and fourth.
But here's the trick: they kind of need to do it again. If Canada is to have any hope of finishing second in the end, they need to finish above fourth to avoid playing New Zealand again in the semifinals. (Notice how I'm taking it as a depressing given that the Black Ferns will beat Scotland.) To do that, they'll need help: first, with three teams already at 10 points, they absolutely have to beat Kazakhstan on Friday and score at least four tries in the process to get that bonus point in order to reach 10. But even that might not be enough even to boost them into fourth (and a semifinal shot), let alone into third place (second is impossible because France and England play each other). With France at +57 and England at +84, and those two teams relatively evenly matched (though England is certainly the favourite), it will likely take another blowout on Canada's part to jump into third place.
Can they do it? Yes. Will they? I guess we'll see on Friday.
posted by Jake at 6:34 PM
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