The Canada U20s defeated the USA Women Junior All Americans 43-6 tonight in Ontario, thereby winning the Can Am series by a convincing 94-11 margin.

Today’s game began very similarly to Wednesday’s. The hosts commanded possession during the first quarter, flashing signs of its very potent, fluid attack, but falling short of the try zone due to unforced errors. A resilient defense also helped Canada off the scoreboard, and according to USA captain Kyla Chipman, who spoke to Goff Rugby Report hours before kickoff, that was all part of the plan.

“We changed the focus of our goals from the previous match,” Chipman said. “We’re really going to be focusing on our defense today, and we changed our attack pattern to better fit Canada’s defense, so it really should be a different match.”

It was, to a certain extent. Canada wasn’t the same team that competed on Wednesday. While the host was eager to move the ball to the wings, where Emma Jada was particularly damaging, Canada mixed it up with weak-side breaks and bursts through the middle.  Support was so quick to secure these line-breaks once they came to ground (fullback Lilly Durbin had her hands full; nice cover tackles from flanker Gio Cruz helped her out), and it only took a pick or two from the base before someone was diving over the line. Hooker Coreen Riley scored the first two tries (of seven) in such a manner, as did captain and prop Deleka Menn for the third try (17-0 after 23 minutes).

The USA defense just couldn’t contain Canada’s multi-faceted offense. The halfback combination of Jess Neilson (who had eight points on four conversions) and Alex Tessier was superb, and the duo used their boots expertly. Outside center and eventual Player of the Series Breanne Nicholas was devastating. She pierced the gainline repeatedly and helped set up several teammates’ scores. Canada did a better job of powering through the tackle, as well, exposing some tackling weaknesses in the USA defense.

Canada had its penalty bouts – especially in the latter part of the game, when USA scrumhalf Brianna Kim slotted six points – but the set pieces were solid, and the breakdowns were more secure than its opponents.

The USA hurt itself during the first half, and Chipman’s comments before the game help explain why.

“We want to get some phase play in and take advantage of Canada’s – they kind of have a broken defense after a few phases,” the captain said. “So we’re looking to strike in the middle and see if we can get some momentum. We’ve got some really strong runners in the backs, so we’re trying to see if we can crash in the center and maybe get some back row forwards working with the backs.”

When the USA got its first sustained possession – in its own end but not in a clearing situation – the forwards made decent ground punching around the breakdown, but the pattern was fairly predictable and the ball recycled slowly. Chipman, flanker Frieda Fetu’u and lock Katie Mueller were reliable and hard-working with ball in hand, but Canada contained the offense easily.

And on more than one occasion, the USA killed its own scoring chances. The most notable occurrence helped set up Canada’s fourth try. The USA made its first foray into Canada’s 10 meter and had an attacking lineout from which to build. A not-straight throw-in eventually turned into a Tessier clear, which took a fortuitous bounce into Jada’s arms. Tessier got into position again, and this time cleared to the USA’s 40 meter. Again, hooker Etta MyLau erred on the throw-in, and Canada used the subsequent scrum to attack on the weak side, with Tessier leading the charge and scoring the try, 24-0 with the Nielson conversion.

Canada put one more on the board before the half. The USA did well to turn the ball over on its tryline but then tried to run it out of the try zone. Chipman only just got over the line, but Canada swarmed and dotted down the loose ball for the 31-0 lead.

The second half saw the Americans move the ball a bit more, and when the USA played with the space, they were more exciting and dangerous. Overcoming a 31-point deficit was ambitious, but the junior Eagles made good territory count and slotted two of three penalties. To the USA’s credit, the visitors held Canada to two tries in the second stanza and fought through every breakdown. Fetu’u was particularly inspiring.

Chipman left the game early after some medical attention, but she walked off the field under her own power. The Penn State sophomore remembered Wednesday’s post-game, (a match that ended 51-5) which was likely to similar to today’s.

“Everyone kept a pretty positive attitude,” Chipman said after the first loss. “We sat and debriefed in the locker room to process everything. It was a lot of people’s first international match. … It wasn’t the result we wanted, but we really pulled together as a team.”

Chipman had ended those insights affirming that the team was playing more cohesively; unfortunately, that didn’t come through in today’s performance.