Because of the population and political imbalance, match-ups between sa国际传媒 and the U.S. across most sports usually mean more to the Canadian side.
That’s why sa国际传媒’s 50-17 women’s rugby victory over the U.S., its eighth consecutive Test victory over the Americans, was satisfying on several levels Saturday in Madrid, Spain.
Canadian captain Sophie De Goede of Victoria was named player of the match. The victory opened the 2023 Pacific Four Series and reprised sa国际传媒’s two wins over the Americans in group play and then the quarter-finals of the World Cup last fall in Auckland, New Zealand.
“We play the Americans a lot and they always come out firing,” said De Goede, in a statement.
“We knew we needed to front up right from the beginning and they definitely put pressure on us, so I was happy with the way we responded to that, and started to put points on the board and build a lead.”
De Goede, the dominating No. 8 out of Oak Bay Secondary, converted five of the eight Canadian tries against strong crosswinds that buffeted the Estadio Nacional Universidad Complutense. The versatile Fancy Bermudez out of Westshore RFC, also an emerging player with sa国际传媒 in sevens rugby, made an impact in just her second XVs Test match with a try. Sabrina Poulin led a well-balanced sa国际传媒 attack with two tries.
“Offensively, we wanted to move the ball and play as a collective,” sa国际传媒 head coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement “It was good to see a lot of good things on the field collectively. For sure there were some mistakes, but just moving the ball, playing together, was fun to see.”
It is early days in the cycle to the next World Cup and the time for world No. 4 sa国际传媒 to try different things.
“For sure, we want to win because we want to show that we are a winning team on this new cycle, but overall, we wanted to just play without pressure,” said Rouet.
“It’s good to build some good offensive and defensive mindset and move on with that.”
sa国际传媒 will host New Zealand and Australia in the second and third rounds of the Pacific Four Series in July in sa国际传媒. Dates and venues will be announced this month. sa国际传媒 last played at home last July in a pre-World Cup Test victory against Italy at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
The top three teams in the Pacific Four will qualify for the top tier of the inaugural WXV, described as a new three-tier annual global competition. The fourth-place team in the Pacific Four will play in the WXV second tier.
