Orchids get their World Cup off to a perfect start

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Papua New Guinea Women v Canada Women

The Papua New Guinea Orchids have started the Women's Rugby League World Cup in superb fashion with a dominant 34-12 victory over the Canada Ravens at Headingley Stadium in Leeds. 

It was a tough opening twenty minutes where both sides tried to gain the ascendency. As the Orchids continued to camp down the Ravens' end, the pressure eventually took its toll. An effective blind-side raid saw the Orchids take the Ravens' edge to pieces and it was Shellie Long who reaped the benefit of finishing off a tremendous blind-side attack. Canada had some quality ball of their own and made Papua New Guinea pay for some poor clean-up work on the half-hour mark. 

A clever grubber kick wasn't recovered by the Orchids and Petra Woods was on the spot to touch down for Canada, with Dani Frananda converting to give her side a 6-4 lead. The Orchids recovered to take the lead just before the half-time break when fullback Martha Molowia ran over the top of several Canadian defenders and managed to stay in the field of play to cross and give Papua New Guinea a slender 2-point cushion at the half. 

The second half began in spectacular fashion as the Orchids carried on their strong first-half finish into the second stanza. Molowia was causing all sorts of problems and it was her speed that saw her break down the left-hand side, she had way too much pace for the Canadian fullback to touch down for her second try.

Papua New Guinea continued their scoring raid five minutes later when Ua Ravu caught the Ravens' defence asleep out of dummy half and the Orchids were running away with this game. Conceding three quick tries, the Canadians had to be next to score, and just before the hour mark, they were able to hit back when Megan Pakulis took a quick tap and ran through some sloppy Orchids defence and it was game on with twenty minutes to play.

Inside the last twenty minutes, Papua New Guinea was able to cross for three quick tries to seal a 22-point victory. First, Essay Banu crashed over from short range when she was able to beat some fatigued Canadian defenders to extend the margin to eight points. Thirteen minutes later, the Orchids were able to expose the Ravens right-edge defence and created the numbers which saw Belinda Gwasamun crash over the top of Pakulis to seal victory for the Orchids. Two minutes later, Anika Butler rubbed salt into the Canadian wound when she raced down the sideline and outpaced the fullback to secure a first-up victory for Papua New Guinea.

Looking ahead, host nation England, who were convincing first-up winners over Brazil, await Canada in their second pool match, while Papua New Guinea head to Hull to take on Brazil in their second match.