Wales face big changes while Canada continue perfect tournament

This has been a sobering campaign for Wales, having promised so much more after Lynn’s arrival as coach. Their final pool match in Exeter was a much-needed chance to restore some pride, and Carys Cox scored inside the opening two minutes to give Wales the perfect start.

What hurt Wales, having outscored Fiji five tries to four, was missed conversions – all five of them were squandered, with Keira Bevan having one effort charged down following Alex Callender’s early score. Three tries in the space of 20 minutes saw Fiji pull clear into a 28-15 lead at half-time, including a double for the player of the match Josifini Neihamu, who also came up with a crucial steal late on. The offloading from Fiji’s tight-five forwards building up to Neihamu’s second score was outstanding. For Wales, the inquest now begins. “We had opportunities, we didn’t take them,” said Lynn. “One thing I will say is the character they showed from half-time to get themselves back in it was brilliant, but Test rugby is brutal and we just didn’t take opportunities.” What is clear is that changes are coming to the Wales set-up. “Individuals will be training a lot more centralised with us,” said Lynn. Players spend most of their time with their Premiership Women’s Rugby clubs which are all in England.

Ioan Cunningham, the Fiji coach, tasted revenge against his former side. Cunningham coached Wales from 2021 to 2024 and left the role after a summer of strife between the Welsh Rugby Union and its women’s side. He admitted to being star-struck by seeing the Prince of Wales and Fiji sevens great Waisale Serevi in the stands. Serevi’s daughter, Asinate, played for the Fijiana in the second row.

“This is huge, it’s massive for Fiji Rugby and Fijiana,” Cunningham said. “We set out on this journey to inspire young women and girls to play rugby back at home in Fiji, and I think the team have done that.”

Samoa must have picked up more supporters during this tournament than any other side, after the impassioned answer their coach Ramsey Tomokino gave during his side’s press conference last weekend about how much it meant to be part of it.

Listening to Tomokino, what truly mattered more than results was that his team, with their minimal resources (some of them mothers who had left their children on the other side of the world), had been given an opportunity to play in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 against the best side in the world.

England won 92-3 last Saturday and yet if you asked anyone at Franklin’s Gardens which moments on the field led to the loudest cheers, they would probably mention two: the scrum penalty won by Samoa at the start of the second half, and fly-half Harmony Vatau’s resulting successful penalty kick, scoring Samoa’s first points at a Rugby World Cup since 2014.

Facing the USA proved a bridge too far, however, and they lost 60-0 in York, with the American flanker Freda Tafuna scoring four tries. “It’s a learning curve for our players,” Tomokino said. “We have enjoyed our time here. Our 24th player is England. We need opportunities for our team to be playing in competitions so that our players can be better.”

Hope Rogers, arguably the USA’s best player, also scored twice in a comprehensive win which gave them a slim chance of progressing to the quarter-finals if Australia were to capitulate to England in Brighton.

“We rise and fall as a team so we’ll watch it together and for the first time ever, I think, cheer on the England team and hope for the best,” said the USA coach Sione Fukofuka.

Canada remain one of England’s main threats for the title and finished the pool stages with a perfect record following their 40-19 win over Scotland in Exeter. Despite the loss, Scotland wing Francesca McGhie continued her impressive scoring at the tournament, adding her sixth try.

Both sides had already booked their spots in the quarter-finals but finishing as the top seed mattered for Canada, ensuring they can avoid facing England until the final at Twickenham later this month.

“Definitely important to finish first in our pool to be in the best position possible. Whoever we face we’ll be ready,” said the Canada captain Alex Tessier, the Exeter centre playing in familiar surroundings at Sandy Park.

Canada’s coach, Kévin Rouet, was pleased with how his side adapted against tougher opposition following routine wins over Fiji and Wales. “What I like is that even if one part of the game is not perfect, we can score tries in many ways. We still scored 40 points against tough opposition so I think we should be proud of that.”

Photograph by Dan Mullan/Getty Images