Italy, Spain & Scotland win

Image thanks to: FER/Revista22

Italy defeated Samoa 65-22, Scotland beat Netherlands 29-7 and Spain defeated Sweden 55-0.

The margin of Samoa and Sweden’s defeats means that they now already face an uphill battle to qualify and would realistically have to win their final two games by a huge margin. The key remaining games, based on early form in the opening round will be Scotland v Italy on Tuesday and Spain v Italy on Saturday.

Italy were simply too strong for Samoa, a side who joined Europe’s qualifiers with little preparation. Italy conceded most of their scores late in the game, by which time the result was a foregone conclusion.

Italy began the game powerfully with Sara Barattin and Veronica Schiavon, particularly impressive and after an hour were 60-0 up, with Samoa unable to stem to the tide of attack.   Italy had the bonus point well wrapped up early and could afford to leak four tries late in the match.

Scotland scored five tries in their win over Netherlands, also securing a bonus point. Scotland scored early through winger Megn Gaffney but the Dutch bit back with a quick score to take a 7-5 lead.  Sarah Dixon then raced over for Scotland’s second and when captain Susie Brown dived over from close range, the game was wrapped up. The bonus point came from Tanya Griffith who pounced late for the fifth try.

Spain had no problems dispatching Sweden in a game in which they totally dominated. Laura Esbrí opened the scoring after a good combination work started by Barbara Pla and when Marina Bravo scored next it was one way traffic.

The games resume on Tuesday.

Tuesday 23rdApril

1.30: Italy  v  Scotland3.30: Sweden  v  Samoa5.30: Spain  v  Netherlands

Saturday 27thApril:

1.30: Sweden  v  Scotland3.30: Netherlands  v  Samoa5.30: Spain  v  Italy