Canada defeated England 31-22 in Ottawa on Friday, sealing a second straight win over the Red Roses in the WXV Global Series. The result means England have now lost consecutive Tests for the first time since 2016, just a week after their record 41-game unbeaten run was ended in Toronto.
Canada vs England, WXV Global Series (Credits: BBC Sport)
The star of the night was Canada captain Sophie de Goede, who scored a hat-trick of tries at TD Place Stadium to inspire the hosts to victory in front of 14,117 supporters. After last week’s 24-21 triumph in Toronto snapped England’s 41-match unbeaten streak, the Canadians backed it up in style to complete a famous double over the world’s top-ranked side.
England actually started brightly, with Maddie Feaunati crashing over in the eighth minute and Zoe Harrison adding the conversion for a 7-0 lead. But Canada hit back through Julia Omokhualu in the 16th minute, and de Goede’s long-range try — converted by herself — gave the hosts a 12-7 advantage at half-time.
Canada Beat England 31-22 After Second-Half Surge
The Red Roses struck first after the break, with a Harrison drop goal and an Amy Cokayne try flipping the score to 17-12 in England’s favour. It proved to be a false dawn. De Goede’s second try of the night restored Canada’s lead at 19-17 in the 55th minute, before tries from DaLeaka Menin and Savannah Bauder in the 62nd and 64th minutes blew the game open at 31-17.
Emma Sing grabbed a late consolation try in the 81st minute to make it 31-22, but the missed conversion ended England’s hopes of a comeback. Across the three meetings between these sides in this year’s WXV Global Series, Canada remain unbeaten — they also held England to a 26-26 draw in Exeter last September, ending a separate 39-game winning streak.
Meg Jones: “We’re Not Broken”
England captain Meg Jones, who played the full 80 minutes on her 30th birthday, insisted the world champions were not in crisis after the defeat. “We just needed to respond a bit better,” she said. “Credit to Canada — what an excellent, excellent team they are. We’ve just got to grow. We’re not broken. We just need to grow from it.”
The numbers underline how rare this slump is for England: it is only their third defeat in 74 matches. But the rest of the world is clearly closing the gap, and Canada — beaten by England in the 2025 World Cup final — are emerging as serious contenders for the 2029 World Cup if they keep improving at this rate.
England now have one final chance to get back to winning ways when they face the USA Women in New Jersey next Friday, while Canada wrap up their WXV Global Series campaign in triumph.
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Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.
