Chiefs help USA to victory over Australia

By Mark Stevens
12/6/22

Exeter Chiefs duo Hope Rogers and Gabby Cantorna were both on the scoresheet as the USA Women returned to winning ways in the second round fo the Pacific Four Series with a 16-14 victory over Australia.

Player of the match Rogers claimed the Eagles opening try, which was converted by Cantorna, who also added two first half penalties as Rob Cain’s side led 13-0 at the break.

Fly-half Cantorna extended their lead to 16-0 with a penalty just before the hour mark. However, Australia rallied hard in the final quarter, hitting back with converted trues from Georgie Friedrichs and Ashley Marsters to set-up a thrilling finale.

The Chiefs duo were joined in the victorious USA side by club-mates Rachel Johnson, Jennine Detiveaux, Megan Foster and captain Kate Zackary, who said at the final whistle: “Honestly it’s just super good to be back with the team after missing the first game against Canada, but I’m so proud of what we’re working on and building towards that World Cup. It’s one game at a time and I couldn’t be more proud right now.”

Head coach Cain added: “Credit to Australia, they really tested both our nerve and skill sets in that final 20 minutes, to see the game out really showed our toughness today. The defensive effort was immense today, it was great win. We will enjoy that one. It’s great to not just get the win, but to also show some key improvements across the areas that didn’t fire from last week. It was a very commanding performance for 55-60 minutes, we created a lot of pressure and suffocated Australia, and we won the physical battle.

‘The neutral would have had a great experience as Australia came back into the game and as well as they played to do this, it was down to us not always getting points from the pressure we created. We will review, add to what we did well and look at how we can improve where we need to with another three sessions together as group. Cohesion is an important factor and knowing we have six more days here in New Zealand and another 38 days for our Rugby World Cup pre-season with some test matches shows that we really are at the start of our preparations.”

"We are immensely proud of the group, their hard work got the reward today. The non-selected really set the tone this week and best prepared the team, whilst the team on field showed a real toughness that created the platform for their success today.”

Meanwhile, Canada - who included the Chiefs trio of Emily Tuttosi, DaLeaka Menin and McKinley Hunt in their squad - were unable to follow up their win over the USA as they went down 28-0 to hosts New Zealand.