SVNS giveth and SVNS taketh away.
The USA women’s team provided all sorts of surprises in Day One of the opening weekend of the Series in Dubai.
Coming in with a very young, very inexperienced team, the Eagles were up against it with a tightened-up, eight-team tournament where there are no easy games.
This was shown to be the case when they lost their opening match, when two second-half tries saw Fiji run away 19-7.
Many would have expected the Eagles to finish the day with a plucky 0-3 record, after that. But they didn’t. The Americans have come in with a new look—faster, shiftier, but not bigger. Head Coach Emilie Bydwell had said before the tournament that, excluding Australia, “in the last four years, [New Zealand] has lost twice, and they've lost to Canada and France, and if you watch those games, those games are not won by trying to contain that team. Those games are won by trying to disrupt that team, which means that your risk appetite has to be quite high.”
And that’s how the USA team approached it. They swarmed on defense trying to disrupt and force mistakes. Even so, New Zealand sent Kelsey Temeti out on the wing for a try. However the USA kept at it and didn’t fold. Su Adegoka burst up the middle to give her side, with Tahna Wilfley’s conversion, the lead going into the break, 7-5.
Twice, then, the Black Ferns took advantage of that high-risk defensive front, once to put Temeti in up the middle, and once to send Risi Pouri-Lane out around the edge from long range.
Now it was 17-7 midway through the second half when Sarah Levy pulled a bit of a Sedrick, stepped her opposite, and took off down the middle of the field for 95 meters. Fitness played a role in that try. Levy hardly looked out of breath after scoring, while the New Zealanders gave up the chase.
Wilfley was good on the kick once more and it was 17-14 with time winding down.
With less than a second left Sariah Ibarra ran an angle line and delayed and delayed and delayed before hitting Eric Coulibaly with a very flat pass. The winger burst onto the ball and was gone. Conversion by Ibarra, and while New Zealand did receive the ball for the last play, that aggressive, hard-hitting defense forced a knock-on and the USA had won a stunning victory.
After that, the match against France was almost anticlimactic.
Confident, and smart enough to stay out of a wrestling match with France, the USA sent Ariana Ramsey through for a try in each half. Wilfley got one, as did Kayla Thomas, staking the Eagles to a 20-7 lead. France responded with a try to make it a one-score game, but Adegoke iced it for a 27-14 win.
