Meghan Mutrie brings us all the reaction from Canada’s win over the USA. We hear from the head coaches as well as standout players Phaidra Knight and Heather Moyse.
Canada’s winning try-scorer Heather Moyse
You mentioned you were nervous, but how does it compare to the Olympics?
"I don't know if you can compare this game to the Olympics. It's two totally different sports and you prepare totally differently. With the Olympics, you’re going to let yourself down – and I guess the entire country! – if you don’t do well. But here it’s more about a team of girls who have put their faith in me coming back and that was the biggest reason why I was anxious and most nervous coming back in this game.”
“I’m not where I want to be come World Cup. I’ve only been back training for a month now. I’m still on the incline and I was really worried I wasn’t in a place where I could give the team everything I wanted or I would let them down.”
What was the best part of this game for you personally?
“It feels good to be back with the girls. Two years away from the team is a long time. It feels good to get those first-game nerves out of my system and now I can just concentrate and play rugby because I love it instead of worrying about all of the other things that are surrounding it”
Canada head coach Johnathan Long.
Which areas of the game will you look to improve for next match?
“Our basic areas are making sure we keep that basic ball clean at the breakdown and it’s just our handling errors. We let the ball hang around the ruck and played into their hands and we spilled the ball a little bit too much. Maybe it’s because it’s the first time we’ve been together in a while, but it’s international rugby so we have to make sure we get that in and make sure that ball sticks.”
Will you look to move it out to the backs more because you know the US are good in tight?
“Our whole intention was to speed the ruck up and get that ball away so we could attack. When you can’t get the ball away from the ruck for one reason or another it’s always going to be difficult to get the backs good quick ball and that’s what we’re trying to achieve, so yeah, disappointing, but a win is a win.”
What do you expect from the Americans come the next match?
“The USA will play the same sort of way. We know each other so well. They’re pretty much where we were in terms of our handling errors and it created a stop-start game. They’ll work on it, we’ll work on it, and we’ll see how well it works on Friday.”
They were on the 5m line… do you think you escaped because of luck, their mistakes or your defense?
“We’ve been working on our defense pretty hard, and the girls have shown how good they are in defense. That’s been something we’ve tried to work on bit by bit and the training sessions on defense this week have been awesome.”
USA Head coach, Kathy Flores
What would you attribute the loss to?
“Well, it was a lack of skill. We’re dropping balls that we should be catching. We’re not calling the balls in the air. We’re running into each other. Not to take anything away from Canada, I thought they played well but I think the match would have been even closer had we been on.”
You were deep in Canada’s end and on their 5m line often…
“We couldn’t put the ball over the line. We just could not put points on the board. A lot of it was unforced errors because we just got in our heads a bit.”
As a coach, where do you go as a squad with such a short turnaround?
“I don’t know that it’s something that I fix truthfully. I can’t teach them to catch, that’s why they’re supposed to be Eagles. Hopefully after they see the video and we discuss it, it’s something that has to happen from them really.”
Phaidra Knight had a standout game for you…
“I’m not surprised at all how well Phaidra played. I’m only surprised when she doesn’t play like that! She’s been playing very well in the last few games.”
USA Flanker, Phaidra Knight
You had an outstanding game, but does losing outweigh your personal performance?
“It doesn’t really matter who you lose to when you do, it’s just disappointing. Every loss is a springboard to success and we just have to learn from the mistakes we made today and correct them.
“One of our biggest issues at this point is building our confidence and that’s what led to a lot of the handling errors which I think were accountable in our loss. We have a young team and we have to turn that switch. It’s just one of those things that just happens, and it can happen immediately or it can take a while but we’re running out of time so we need to make that adjustment relatively soon and just execute.”
“The US, we have very fit, very talented and very skillful players, but at the end of the day we need to execute better on the basics and that’s what we’ll take to the field tomorrow. And not just from now until Friday, that’s until we set sail for England as well.”
Do you expect any roster changes from today for Friday?
“I do anticipate the coaches will make some change on the roster, but these are probably changes they already knew going into this match. Practices will probably get a lot more intense. They gave us the game plan and we just need to focus on the basics
“Every failure is a springboard to success.”
