Wallaroos Advance to Rugby World cup Quarterfinals, Face Canada
brighton, England – Despite a 47-7 loss to tournament favourites England in their final group stage match, the Australian Women’s Rugby team, the Wallaroos, have secured a place in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals. The result sees Australia progress ahead of the United States.
The Wallaroos led England for over 30 minutes in a spirited performance before being overcome in the second half. The quarterfinal clash against Canada presents a “do-or-die” opportunity for the team, according to captain Siokapesi Palu.
“there’s been a huge confidence boost amongst the group,” Palu said. “You can see week in, week out that we continue to get better, but just being able to produce a performance like that against England in that first 30 minutes probably surprised most of us, and probably was good for us. Because now we’ve instilled a bit of belief within ourselves that we can do things right as long as we execute it the best we can.”
Palu believes the pressure may now shift to Canada,who narrowly defeated Scotland 40-19 in their final group match.
“The odds are against us this game, and the pressure then gets bounced back on Canada,” she said. “it’s up to them to perform to what people are expecting of them.but if that allows us to take that pressure off ourselves and play a little bit more freestyle rugby, which we’re really good at, hopefully that puts belief in us that we can execute what we need.”
The winner of the Australia versus Canada quarterfinal will advance to face either defending champions New Zealand or South Africa in the semi-finals.
AAP/ABC
