Women's Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals

I’m writing about these in the order I saw them, not the order they were played.

France v New Zealand

There are games where, as a neutral, you don’t want it to end. Both sides are playing well and, despite the nerves of the fans, it’s close and that brings an extra tension to the game because any mistake could be the mistake the one that costs your side the victory and, in this case, a chance to play in the final.

It would be easy to dismiss this as France’s defence mostly stifling NZ's attack and coming up just short. While that’s partly true, it ignores the 24 points that France scored. It would be easy to say Drouin blew it with bad kicking and while she did miss the final penalty kick and have several poor kicks from hand, the Black Ferns kickers were far from perfect with the boot, from the tee and out of hand too. In fact, as a unit they were probably worse overall, although like the score line it was marginal.

This was two sides who play in different ways but we’re both playing well. They struggled and scrapped and the Kiwis came out a point ahead. One bounce of the ball different, one swing of a boot different and Les Bleues would have been equally deserving winners.

All the earlier rounds might have had big margins of victory, at least for the top tier sides. However, here we had a match that women's rugby really can take and show anyone just how good the sport is.

Canada v England

This was a game of three parts really.

In the first fourteen minutes England were all over Canada, scoring almost a point a minute (it would have been, but the conversion from the side line went wide). Then, essentially from the restart, Canada roared back and produced a lovely try of their own. After that, the sides basically traded points pretty much blow for blow. Try for one, then try for other, penalty for one then penalty for the other and so on. Unfortunately Canada never really closed that seven point gap, equally England never really pulled away. However, the size of the gap meant the tension in the New Zealand v France match wasn’t there. You might not say England were ever in control after Canada pulled them back to a seven point lead, but they were never chasing the lead either, and even the odd bounces of the ball mostly favoured them. For example, Canada charged down a kick from within the England 22, and had several other players nearby, but the ball shot out sideways, straight to an England player.

I mentioned three parts and if you’ve been counting you might realise that’s only two. The third part is, sadly, the referee. I don’t think she was biased and I didn’t notice many occasions when she blew that I thought were wrong. A couple, here and there, but nothing to complain about. I should also say because nothing happened, all the things I think I saw were from a distance and without replays, she was close and is an experienced referee. She may well have got them all right. But, even with those provisos, there were a number of decisions not to blow I found questionable. They seemed to definitely have an impact on the game, one would have chalked off England's first try for example,

I have to say, although this game wasn’t as exciting as the other semi-final, it was often more attractive from England than I’ve seen in years. The Canadians played a good mix too. It will be interesting to see what happens next week. The English backs don’t look as sharp as the Kiwis, but their forwards look better, certainly at set piece. However, at the breakdown and in open play it’s more even. Can the Red Roses contain the Black Ferns and get enough penalties to maul them out of the match? Really those are going to be the key points and I guess we’ll have to wait and see.