The Wallaroos have fallen short in their quest for a breakthrough victory over Canada, but can take heart from a 24-0 defeat in their opening match of the Pacific Four rugby series.
After conceding more than 40 points in their past two meetings against the world No 2 side, the Australian women delivered an improved performance in tough conditions in their Sacramento clash on Sunday.
The match was delayed by more than an hour because of lightning, with heavy rain still falling in the opening quarter.
The wet conditions helped the Wallaroos put the brakes on Canada’s formidable attack, keeping their rivals from crossing until the 19th minute.
Picking up the ball at the back of the ruck, Saracens lock Julia Omokhuale dived over the line to open the scoring.
It looked like the Wallaroos would go into half-time down just the one try, but they gave up another at the 40-minute mark when a turnover was scooped by Canada’s skipper Justine Pelletier. The scrum-half darted through a hole before offloading to flanker Pam Buisa for a 12-0 lead.
Starved of ball and field position through some sloppy handling, Australia struggled to build momentum, although scrum-half Sam Wood and winger Desiree Wood did their best to kickstart the attack.
The Wallaroos were also let down by poor discipline, giving up 17 penalties, and had to play out the final five minutes with 13 players, with centre Celia Smith (high tackle) and replacement hooker Brittany Merlo (side entry) both given yellow cards.
They continued to show up with some steely defence, but the patient Canada finally broke through in the 66th minute when winger Asia Hogan-Rochester dived across in the corner.
Debutant hooker Kiki Idowu bagged her team’s fourth try in the 73rd minute, the Canadians savouring a shut-out of the Aussies.
Wallaroos skipper Siokapesi Palu Sekona said there were positives to take away from the result.
“Although we didn’t get on the scoreboard, we applied a lot of pressure,” she said. “You can see with the scoreboard, there’s a huge shift from that last quarter-final game back at the World Cup.”
New Zealand earlier downed USA 48-15 in the other fixture in the four-team tournament. The Wallaroos face the USA in Kansas City, Missouri, in round two next weekend.
