Women's Rugby World Cup : The Group Stages Wraps Up

England 47-7 Australia: Pool A Women's Rugby World Cup Saturday 6 September Photo: @redroses/Instagram

The Women's Rugby World Cup group stages are over and we now have the teams that are through to the quarter finals.

In pool A we had the big favorites, England. They won all 3 matches in the group stages and showed why they are the favorites with huge score leads. They dominated each game with determination and showed no mercy in doing so. 

Also in pool A were Australia. They ended up scoring big in their first match against Samoa with a clean sheet, letting no tries scored. Then against the USA they drew 31 all and finally against England they lost 47 - 7. However this match included an awful lot of injuries for the English side, and they drew a yellow card in the last few minutes, which gave Australia the upper hand with England down a player. 

Pool B's finalists are Canada and Scotland. Canada topped the table having won all three of their matches by a mile - very similar to England. They will be playing Australia on Saturday 13 September.  

Following on, Scotland will play England. The rivalry between the two teams will be shown from the passion of the Scottish side, however it seems to me that there is a clear winner in this match up. And with Scotland only winning two out of the three matches, and losing to Canada by just over a 20 point difference, I think England will come out on top this Sunday. 

Pool C's top two are New Zealand and Ireland. New Zealand have been showcasing some incredible rugby this tournament with Sorensen-McGee scoring a hat-trick in her team’s last match against Ireland. With her incredible movement on the pitch she got around 3 defenders to score a try for the Kiwi side; not to mention she is only 18 years of age and is able to handle the pressure of a World Cup. 

Ireland in the group stages started out strong by coming out on top in their first two matches, however they slipped away in the last match against New Zealand and did not score a single try. They showed a completely different side than in October when they beat New Zealand in the WXV1.

Finally, in pool D our top two teams are France and South Africa. France took the sweet spot with a clean sweep in the group stages, however their second half against South Africa was not so clean. South Africa seemed to have turned on a switch and came back harder than the first half. 

The side’s second place finish was well deserved, having shown a lot of resilience in tight games including a close battle with Italy. South Africa now face New Zealand on Saturday and France play Ireland on Sunday.