WXV 2026, Week 2

 

South Africa Women v Wales

There are really two things to say about this match, and they’re both good for Wales. 

First, in the game against NZ that I talked about a few weeks ago, and the game against the USA that I didn’t watch beyond the highlights, South Africa really dominated at the set piece and their driving mauls after lineouts were a fearsome weapon. The Welsh were not perfect against these weapons, they got pushed off a scrum put in to concede the first South African try, and gave up another after a lineout and good maul. However, those were the exceptions, not the norm, and Wales disrupted the South African lineout and maul routinely and were probably about even, or slightly beaten, in the scrums overall, which is an excellent performance against a strong pack. 

The other thing would be the Welsh momentum, for want of a better term. Wales basically dominated every aspect of the first half. South Africa had, generously, five good minutes, and were good enough to score that try from a Welsh scrum feed. However, it was 38-5 at halftime, and it could have been worse for South Africa. The Welsh played well, better than the French or English last week, but had that similar rustiness and there was about 20 minutes with quite a lot of dropped passes and the like. But they were a bit less adventurous, which led to them scoring quickly. They grew in confidence on the back of that, and everything improved with that. The scoreline was a fair reflection of the half, not a fluke.

In the second half, South Africa came out fired up and scored twice, but Wales gradually fought their way back in and scored two more tries of their own to first steady the nerves then seal the victory. It was probably out of reach in fact, but resisting that surge and ending on a high was great for morale and the challenges ahead. 

Sean Lynn, and Wales Women, have had a rough start. As always, at the moment, some of that is off-field craziness, some has been delays and confusion around appointing assistants. But this now looks like a settled coaching team and a happy playing squad who are working well together. There are still areas for improvement, of course, but there are finally real signs of hope. 

South Africa are a very young squad, and currently quite limited in their plan. When they can deliver it, it is, like the men, brutally effectively, but they need to build out from that to beat the good teams. And even some of the currently mediocre ones that are, hopefully, rebuilding towards being good again.

England v Canada

This match, as the commentators almost incessantly reminded us, was a replay of the RWC final from about a year ago. The England coaching staff and senior players tried to downplay that, the Canadians, from the head coach down, are calling this “the revenge tour” - after WXV, England are off to Canada for a couple of matches. 

Two things were very different from last year. In that final, England blew the Canadians away, whilst the final score of 33-13 was closer than any other game for the Red Roses, it was never close as a match. On the flip side, the Canadians had crazily fast rucks, throughout the tournament and in the final, the fastest average ruck speed of any team, male or female since we’ve started recording it. I don't have an average ruck speed, but England were faster to the eye than the Canucks, and had an appreciably higher proportion of sub-3s rucks according to the stats.

The term arm-wrestle could have been coined for this game. One side would score and the other would score back. Even the pattern of missed conversions was the same, so the scores stayed level, or quickly reverted to level throughout the match. 

If you read the stats, which I tend not to do all that closely, a lot of those are really close too. There are odd ones where one side or the other has a clear edge, but in the one that matters, the score, there was nothing between them at the end. 

English decline? Canadian improvement? Hard to say. Maybe a bit of both. But a thrilling match.

France v Australia

There is a nearby parallel world where parallel-me is writing a review that starts with a diatribe about the lack of discipline by the French. I would probably moderate it a little by saying that I felt that the referee was really harsh. But a straight red, a yellow upgraded to red and three yellows, and at one point Les Bleues were down to 11 players for about eight minutes, was what the TMO and ref decided was right. (I still think one, probably two of those yellows were harsh, clear contact with the body first, most of the force there, and some contact with the head, yes, but penalty only.)

Australia scored three tries with a four-woman advantage. And one try later on. As soon as France were back to only two players down they exploded into life and started scoring. They had been threatening to do this before that period too, but the Australian scramble defence was fresh and able to foil them. It wasn’t quite one way, but pretty much. Obviously with the cards, the Wallaroos had a good spell, but the French came back as soon as they were back to 1£ women, and really started to dominate when they were back to 14. In the second half, the French bench were far superior to the Australian replacements, and although it didn’t have its full impact with the 20 minute red card, as fatigue set in they rotated them through and kept scoring despite missing a player, running out 29-26 victors. 

This win, plus my feelings that two of the cards should not have been shown, shouldn’t stop the French having a long, hard look at their tackle technique. But the Australian camp need to have a long, hard look at themselves too. Four extra players for nearly ten minutes, then two extra for about five more immediately afterwards, one extra for the rest of the match, about 55 minutes, and a bonus extra yellow card and 10 minutes in the second half. And you fucking lose? The game was handed to you on a platter and you blew it. 

Scotland v New Zealand

In this match, Scotland really had five really good minutes and scored two tries. New Zealand didn’t have 75 good minutes, per se, but were better than Scotland for those 75 minutes, and were probably actually good for about an hour of them during which they scored 66 points and 10 tries. For the rest of the game, the Black Ferns drifted a bit, the game was gone, even in second gear they were comfortably better than the Scots and they relaxed. Against England next week they won’t be able to get away with that, but it’s not clear whether that was orders from on high or psychological, in either case I don’t think they’ll do it next week. 

Really, apart from the howling gale, that had an impact, several kicks went long for example, that’s all there is to say about this match in particular. 

One thing that this game and France v Australia goes to show is the gulf between the top four and the rest in women’s rugby. Now, to some extent the same is broadly true in the men’s game. The teams ranked first, England and South Africa, are clearly off in a league of their own, England more than South Africa. In the men's game arguably New Zealand (in second) are clear of the next four, in the women’s game that’s less clear cut - certainly New Zealand and Canada are very close, France and New Zealand may be too. In the women’s game the step down from France to Ireland (fourth to fifth) is huge. In the men’s game, the step from France (or Ireland) to England less so. But Scotland to Australia (six v seven in the men's game)? That feels big still. I'd back the current Scotland team to beat Australia well over 75% of the time, and I wouldn't balk if you think I should have said 90% of the time. Rugby is a game where tiny differences matter, and if you get enough tiny differences stacking up on one side, you get a huge scoreline, like this game, or a team surviving an extended period with four players missing and still winning. Is that bad? Not necessarily, it's part of what we love about the game, but in the women's game those differences are really stark at the moment.

Ireland v USA

I must admit, going into this, I expected an easy Ireland win. They have been there or thereabouts, aiming to challenge at least France in the W6N for the last few years, perhaps flattered a bit by catching the French early in the tournament and Les Bleues being slow starters.

This was, to roll out the clichés, a game of two halves. Some of that was undoubtedly a change in attitudes of the two teams, but some was the change in conditions. In the first half Ireland played with the wind and sun at their backs, and could do very little wrong. They scored early and kept scoring, the only thing they might regret was their goal kicking, which at 2 from 4 was a little wayward. Still 24-12 at the half felt good and like the start of a comfortable win.

When they scored a few minutes after the break, that sense of inevitability grew, despite some dropped ball that felt like could be put down to having the sun in their eyes. Then the match changed. Kinlan was shown yellow and with the extra woman plus the environment on their side, the USA scored no less than three tries in the next ten minutes. That's as many as Australia managed with a four-woman advantage, and the periods around it with three and two women extra. The match was gone, and Ireland stole a penalty at the end to make it 40-36. Just for context, you expect, on average to score about seven points with an extra player. Obviously some teams score more, because there are definitely times teams don't concede, but 21 points is still a lot. USA were actually in the same group on the World Rankings as Ireland, which was a bit of a surprise to be honest, but this match showed that they deserved to be there.

Looking Ahead

Next week, England face New Zealand, Wales face USA, Scotland face Australia and France face Canada amongst other matches. These are the ones that I'm going to try and watch, although not all of them will be live because many of them overlap.

• I think England will be looking to bounce back, and their pack strength will be up against a weakness of the Black Ferns. 
• USA are clearly a good team and will be a real challenge but Wales will be full of confidence. The rankings say USA should win, but I have hope, although I'll be happy with a decent performance as they're building. 
• France, even with the changes enforced by two suspensions, versus Canada should be an epic. France have something to prove, Canada might just be coming down after that game against England. 
• Both Scotland and Australia have something to prove and that makes the match impossible to call.