Leeds Rhinos winger scores but England women crash out of World Cup title after loss to Samoa
England women are out of the World Cup after a 24-6 defeat by Samoa in Wollongong today (Friday).
The sides’ final group game was effectively a quarter-final and the Pacific Islanders secured their spot in the last four with a comprehensive victory. They scored five tries to one and were far more clinical, Leeds Rhinos’ Evie Cousins grabbing England’s only touchdown.
Playing against a strong wind, England trailed 12-0 at half-time and a try at the start of the second period left them with a mountain to climb. Cousins touched down soon afterwards to give her side hope, but they wasted some chances after that and errors and penalties allowed Samoa to pull clear.
Right-winger Freedom Crichton-Ropati scored all Samoa’s first half points through a hat-trick of tries, none of them converted by Pauline Piline-Rasable. England defended well for spells, but put themselves under pressure with a succession of errors and it could have been worse had Destiny Mino-Sinapati not dropped the ball over the line early on.
The second half got off to a disastrous start for England when left-winger Mercedez Taulelei-Siala crossed for Samoa’s fourth unconverted try. However, a break by Hollie-Mae Dodd got England on the front foot for the first time and that led to a try for Cousins.
The winger, who had a tough first half, was dragged down just short of the line and went to play the ball, but referee Chris Kendall ruled the tackle wasn’t complete and the Leeds winger was smart enough to play on and stretch over. Isabel Rowe landed a superb touchline conversion.
England couldn’t take advantage of a 40-20 kick by Roche - the former Castleford Tigers and Rhinos stand-off - and Piliae-Rasabale nudged Samoa two scores ahead with a penalty in front of the posts. Anna Davies crossed, but Fran Goldthorp’s pass was forward and then Roche sent a penalty out on the full. That set up a counter-attack by Samoa and they sealed their win with a try by Fonua Rimoni which Piline-Rasable converted.
England Women: Goldthorp, Davies, Wilson, Boyd, Cousins, Rowe, Roche, Coleman, Bennett, Wood, Murray, Dodd, Williams. Subs Cunningham, Whitfield, Millard, Sams.
Samoa: Mino-Sinapati, Taulelei-Siala, Tagoai, Ekepati, Ropati, Isa’ako, Piliae-Rasabale, Nuuausala, Taito, Clarke, Wilson, Lolesio, Papalii. Subs Faifua, Rimoni, Tafua, Onesemo-Tuilaepa.
Referee: Chris Kendall (England).