Canada Beat SA U20 in Nations Cup Bronze Medal Play-Off

A weary South African U20 women’s rugby team will return home after their gruelling week in Santa Barbara, USA, with their final performance in the Nations Cup tournament ended a 32-5 loss to Canada, on Saturday, 23 July, 2011.

Perhaps adding to the weight will be the fact that, in their second fixture against the Canadians after going down 27-7 in the first, the South Africans were not able to lessen the margin of defeat suffered earlier.

In the bronze medal play-off, the Africans under captain Marithy Pienaar gave away a needless penalty early in the match’s opening minutes to allow the Canadians to storm through the middle and score a converted try under the posts, before the referee handed out a yellow card for repeated infringements, hands in the ruck, and another three points deficit.

A penalty against SA in the Canadian half provided the north-Americans the opportunity to set up a 6-1 overlap, and the resulting try saw them move up to 15-nil at the half-time.

Starting the second half, the South Africa were under the cosh again, with the Canadians managing to touch down twice before losing two players to yellow card infringements late in the game.

Their defences stretched, the South Africans had the luxury of a strong ruck allowing good ball through the back line for wing Nombaxo Nanto to put her team’s only points on the board.

Adding insult to injury, the Canadians managed to score once more a player down before the referee brought the match to an end, and South Africa ending the tournament in fourth and final place.

Right now the three significant losses on the trot may not sound like much benefit to the age-group South Africans team, but with the right follow-through SA Rugby will be able to use this experience to the benefit of women’s rugby at home.

In the final encounter, a honed England team downed the hosts USA 48-11 to lift the Nations Cup champions title.

Note: This report based on the recorded commentary available at scrumhalfconnection.com. Visit this page for links of all information on the U20 Nations Cup at the Scrum-Half Connection.

Note: Also Visit USA Rugby page on UStream.tv, where excellent video coverage is available, including audio from the match Referee.

South Africa:

Canada:

The South Africa U20 Squad to the Nations Cup: