Nations Cup – England Cruise to Easy Win over France 43-8

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8/10: USA vs England Match Report
8/10: France vs South Africa Match Report
8/13: Canada vs South Africa Match Report
8/13: England vs France Match Report
8/16: Canada vs France Match Report
8/16: USA vs South Africa Match Report
8/19: England vs South Africa Match Report
8/19: Canada vs USA Match Report
8/22: USA vs France Match Report
8/22: England vs Canada Match Report

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from Rugby Canada:

England proved to be late risers as they came back from 5-0 down to take their second win of the 2009 Women’s Nations Cup against France by a score of 43-8.

The defending champions were in fine form running in seven tries on Thursday evening at Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario.

Just as in their opening match against the USA on Monday evening, the English woke with vengeance as they failed to score the opening try of the match.

French winger Emilie Moreaux was first to touch down before England released an onslaught of tries as it took Danielle Waterman just seven minutes to draw level.

France would take the lead just once more through the boot of Christelle Le Duff before England unleashed their back line on Les Bleus.

Katherine Merchant scored two tries and Katy McLean kicked both conversions to have England leading 19-8 at the half time whistle.

Merchant would continue her scoring ways as she opened the second half with a dramatic tackle-breaking-run to lead 24-8 before Alice Richardson, Danielle Waterman and Emily Scarratt would each go over for tries.

“It was a great team effort,” Merchant said when reflecting on her team coming from behind twice during the match. “Being scored on early lifts you and makes you realize you can’t just be moderate – you have to give it everything.”

Despite claiming two solid wins early in this year’s Nation’s Cup English Head Coach Gary Street was cautious about his team’s recent form.

“We’re still early in our season as this was only our second game,” he said of his side notching 43 points in their second match. “We always expect teams to come out and really give their all against us but we use that to just ride out the storm and do what we need to do.”