{"id":857625,"date":"2025-06-23T22:12:40","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/23\/canadian-women-dominate-australia-in-45-7-pacific-four-series-rugby-win\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:12:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:12:40","slug":"canadian-women-dominate-australia-in-45-7-pacific-four-series-rugby-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/23\/canadian-women-dominate-australia-in-45-7-pacific-four-series-rugby-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian women dominate Australia in 45-7 Pacific Four Series rugby win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

BRISBANE \u2014 Defending champion Canada ran in seven tries en route to a lopsided 45-7 women’s rugby win over Australia on Friday, completing an unbeaten run through the Pacific Four Series.<\/p>\n

The second-ranked Canadians must now await the outcome of No. 3 New Zealand’s home game against the ninth-ranked U.S. on Saturday in North Harbour to see whether they retain their title.<\/p>\n

Canada and New Zealand went into the final round tied on eight points after their 27-27 draw last Saturday in Christchurch. But New Zealand held the tiebreaker edge over Canada \u2014 a plus-26 points differential compared to plus-12 for Canada.<\/p>\n

The Canadians (2-0-1) achieved their goal Friday by defeating Australia (1-2-0), scoring four tries for a bonus point and running up the score. A New Zealand bonus-point win Saturday and the title will be decided by points differential.<\/p>\n

Canada’s points differential now stands at plus-50. But the Black Ferns will undoubtedly add to their differential, having thumped the U.S. 57-5 when they met in last year’s Pacific Four Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we would have loved to get that win against New Zealand last weekend, but we had to move on,” said Canada captain Alex Tessier. “It was a short turnaround to this week. Friday came quickly but overall I was very proud of the girls today. It was a decent win. We put a lot of points on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada improved to 7-0-0 all-time against No. 6 Australia. <\/p>\n

Canada dominated set pieces, pushing back the Wallaroos in the scrum and winning lineouts. The Canadians led 26-0 at the half and could have added to the lead, with another try called back for obstruction and handling errors ending other attacks.<\/p>\n

But the Canadian passing was silky-smooth for most of the game with the backs looking dangerous and hard-running forwards pounding the Australian defence.<\/p>\n

Tessier, McKinley Hunt, Karen Paquin, Julia Schell, Laetitia Royer, Krissy Scurfield and Fabiola Forteza scored tries for Canada. Schell booted five conversions.<\/p>\n

Desi Miller scored Australia’s try with Faitala Moleka adding the conversion.<\/p>\n

The two teams could meet again in the World Cup quarterfinals this summer in England. <\/p>\n

The game at Suncorp Stadium was the first half of a doubleheader, with the Hurricanes downing the Queensland Reds 31-27 in the Super Rugby nightcap.<\/p>\n

Canada had lost just one of its nine previous matches (7-1-1) while the Wallaroos had won five of their last six. <\/p>\n

Canada opened tournament play with a 26-14 win over the U.S. on May 2 in Kansas City. Australia lost its opener 38-12 to New Zealand in Newcastle, Australia, before bouncing back to beat the U.S. 27-19 in Canberra.<\/p>\n

The Australians were under pressure from the get-go Friday and Canada went ahead in the third minute with Hunt touching down at the back of a prolonged rolling maul after Canada stole a Wallaroos lineout.<\/p>\n

Paquin went over in the 11th minute after a powerful run by prop DaLeaka Menin for a 14-0 lead with Schell scoring in the 19th minute off another errant Wallaroos lineout. A Canadian try off a rolling maul in the 25th minute was called back for obstruction.<\/p>\n

When the Wallaroos did make it deep into the Canadian end later in the first half, they were unable to penetrate the defence.<\/p>\n

Royet scored Canada’s fourth try, earning the bonus point, on the stroke of halftime after Australia was penalized at the breakdown.<\/p>\n

The Wallaroos came out with purpose in the second half, only to see a try in the 43rd minute called off for a knock-on. Australia kept coming and Miller scored two minutes later.<\/p>\n

Canada added tries by Scurfield (48th minute), Tessier (52nd) and Forteza (72nd) to complete the victory. Another Forteza try was called back for a forward pass while Schell, looking to improve Canada’s points differential, missed a penalty in added time when her kick hit the goalpost. <\/p>\n

The match was refereed by transplanted Canadian Maggie Cogger-Orr, a native of Markham, Ont., and former McMaster University rugby player who moved to New Zealand in 2014.<\/p>\n

All four Pacific Four Series teams are preparing for the World Cup, which kicks off Aug. 22 in England. The Canadians have been drawn in Pool B with No. 7 Scotland, No. 10 Wales and No. 16 Fiji.<\/p>\n

Canada’s next games are against No. 12 South Africa in Pretoria on July 5 and Gqeberha on July 12. Its final tune-up is Aug. 9 against No. 5 Ireland in Belfast.<\/p>\n

Canada won last year’s Pacific Four Series with its first-ever victory over New Zealand, defeating the Black Ferns 22-19 in Christchurch. The Canadian women had lost all 17 meetings with New Zealand before that.<\/p>\n

Canada also won the inaugural Pacific Four Series in 2021, when the event consisted of a two-game series with the U.S. due to COVID travel restrictions. The Canadians finished runner-up to New Zealand in 2022 and 2023 when the competition was expanded to four teams.<\/p>\n

Canada improved to 12-5-1 since losing 36-0 to France in the third-place game at the World Cup in November 2022. Four of those losses were to England, with the other to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2025<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRISBANE \u2014 Defending champion Canada ran in seven tries en route to a lopsided 45-7 women’s rugby win over Australia on Friday, completing an unbeaten run through the Pacific Four Series. The second-ranked Canadians must now await the outcome of No. 3 New Zealand’s home game against the ninth-ranked U.S. on Saturday in North Harbour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":857626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22265,999],"tags":[9997,5659],"class_list":{"0":"post-857625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canadian","8":"category-women","9":"tag-canadian","10":"tag-women"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}