London Women’s Sevens: Day one

Photo: Thanks to RugbyMatters

​Two rounds of games now complete.

Round One

All eight teams in this tournament will be in Moscow - and it shows. This is a tournament with no weak teams, no easy games. OnlyFranceseem behind the pace. To open against the Number 1 seeds -England -would be a tough task at the best of times but (as reported earlier in the week) to do so as  an experimental side coming straight out of your Top 10 fifteens championship was asking a very great deal indeed.

Which is not to take anything away from an imperious performance by England. Six tries,bracketed either side of half-time (two from Marlie Packer, two from Kat Merchant, and other by Heather Fisher and Claire Allan) they looked like they threatened to score whenever they had the ball, while the French were starved of possession. Result - 38-0 to England.

Next up wasSpainandAustralia- a vital game, near quarter-final given that England are near certain to win the pool. And a tough battle it was too. Australia opened the scoring within a minute of the start, and generally had the most of the early possession - but Spain battled back and leveled the game just before the break through Berta Garcia. The sides remained deadlocked well into the second period, with much of the play in the Spanish half. With less than three minutes a second Australian try put them ahead - but crucially Sharni Williams missed the difficult conversion. Spain responded and seized their chance  when Elizabeth Martinez broke down the wing - and was a then allowed to touchdown near to the posts giving Patricia Garcia a fairly easy kick to put Spain ahead. A tense final play followed, but the Spanish frustrated every Australian attempt to breakout and came away with a 14-12 win.

Pool B now took over, withUSAusing all their experience to beat a passionate, but at times naive,Russianteam - the first USA try in particular coming from a turnover in a ruck which the Russian had won comfortably but took too long to pass out the ball. A second USA try before the break extended the lead to 12-0. However they were unable to add to the score in the second period, and Russia came back with a try in the corner from Rusiet Edidzhi with two minutes left. Coach Pavel Baronovksy now put on star player Baizat Khamidiova, who nearly broke through with her first touch of the ball, but time ran out for the Russians, USA winning 12-5.

The first round finished withCanadaandIreland- and if England looked good in the first game, Canada looked awesome here. Ireland are great side, and at full strength here in London as this (and the Europeans) will be their only pre-World Cup tournaments, but the Canadians were playing at a different level. Jennifer Kish in particular looked dangerous whenever she had the ball, and set up the first try for Mandy Marchak. Three more tries followed as great defence also neutralised every Irish attack. Aisling Hutchins touched down for the Irish just before the end, but Canada took the game 22-5 and, on basis of first performances, its hard to see beyond a Canada v England final tomorrow.

Round two.

It looked like the game of the round, if not the day, and it proved to be exactly that. After a good first round showSpainraised their game againstEnglandand at times were looked heartstoppingly close to pulling off a surprise and even beating England for the first time. They scored first - Elizabeth Martinez breaking away to touchdown in the first minute, and held that lead until two munutes from the break when a Kat Merchant try levelled the game 5-5 - where it remain until the dying seconds of the game. In the meanwhile the game flowed both ways in a superb duel between Europe's top two teams, and it was only with less than a minute to go that Emily Scarratt finally broke the deadlock. The hooter then went - but England interestingly seemed to feel they had something to prove, and rather than ending the game they went for a third try - and it came, courtesy of Jo Watmore. 17-5 the final score, but it was so much closer than that.

Following that was always going to be hard, butAustralia v Francewas, for much of the game, a disappointing and scrappy affair. Only in the final quarter of the game did Australia start to play like World Champions, eventually winning by 33-0.

Irelandagainst theUSA,on the other hand, was a much more exciting and interesting game. Tries for Niamh Briggs and Jeanette Feighery game Ireland a 14-0 half time lead, though this was partly thanks to two Americans tries being disallowed, the second - for crossing - provoked some discussion among those watching. If this was the luck of the Irish it could not last, and it did not. A reassessment of tactics at half-time resulted in a USA team that significantly raised its game and spent the majority of the second period camped in the Irish half, mainly on the Irish line. The result was three tries, and a 17-14 win to the Americans.

It was now that the rain - threatened for so long - came with avengence, rather spoiling the opening stages ofCanada's game withRussia.Canada won the game with some ease - 17-0.

Round threewith a change in the weather brough some significant change in performance - with teams as good as these predictions can be dangerous.France hadby far their best game, frustratingSpainand nearly pulling of a singificant shock, only to go down by 7-0 thanks to a first half try from Marina Bravo.

We then had a terrific game betweenEnglandandAustralia- a game that turned on a yellow card for Marie Packer. For the first five minutes of the game England were in charge, if only 5-0 ahead, but going a player down allowed Australia back in - and they took full advantage with two tries in the final two minutes and a 10-5 lead. Packer was back for the second half, but these tries had lifted Australia to new heights, not seen all tournament to this point. The lead now contantly changed hands. A Staniford try gave England a 12-10 lead, only for Australa to come back to 15-10. Jo Watmore then scored England's third, which when concerted put then 19-15 ahead, before a fourth Australian try had them snactching the game on the final whistle 20-19.

And so to Pool B, and the battle for third betweenRussiaandIreland- or perhaps Baizat Khamidova and Ireland as the tall, strong speedster scored four tries in Russia's best game of the day. The newcomers in their squad were getting better as the day went on - but clearly Khamidova is a key player, and when she is on throughout they are a different team.

Which gave us USA against Canada. Canada started as clear favourites, but the previous games had shown that "form" in this event meant little. However a Mandy Marchak try gave Canada an early lead, which was doubled by Julianne Zussman early in the second half. However, USA were always in the game and a Vanesha McGhee try with 50 seconds left gave them hope, but Marchak stole the restart and the Canadians were home, 10-5

Quarter-finals (tomorrow, from 9am BST): Spain v USA; Australia v Russia, England v Ireland, and France v Canada.

Pool A

Pool B