Schell shock as six-try star leads Canada to 65-7 World Cup hammering of Fiji / Photo: Paul ELLIS - AFP
Schell shock as six-try star leads Canada to 65-7 World Cup hammering of Fiji
Julia Schell needed just 22 minutes to score a remarkable six tries as Canada launched their Women's Rugby World Cup campaign with a 65-7 thrashing of Fiji in York on Saturday.
The full-back, who plays for London club Ealing Trailfinders in England's elite Premiership Women's Rugby, crossed six times from the 50th minute -- including a four-minute hat-trick.
Schell's haul was just two tries off the all-time record of eight, set by New Zealand's Portia Woodman-Wickliffe against Hong Kong in 2017.
Victory meant Canada, second in the world rankings, started the tournament in style, with Schell revealing afterwards it was a supporter in the crowd at the York Community Stadium in northern England who had given her the inspiration for a stunning return, saying: "A guy over there told me he would give me $200 if I scored, so I need to go and speak to him.
"I think as a team we didn't start as we wanted to, we had some calm chats at half-time and ramped it up."
Yet Canada still opened the scoring after just five minutes as Sophie de Goede, the outstanding Saracens forward, marked her return to the world stage after missing last year's Olympic Sevens with a severe knee injury, went in for a try off the back of a line-out.
Gillian Boag scored Canada's second try from a rolling maul and even after Taylor Perry was sin-binned, they continued to dominate, with Caroline Crossley getting away for their third.
De Goede then produced a brilliant double miss-pass to put Sarries teammate Alysha Corrigan in for the bonus-point score, before a line-out steal on her own line kept Fiji scoreless at the break.
But the Pacific islanders scored the try of the match, with replacement Kolora Lomani finishing a length-of-the-field counter-attack after being put away by skipper Alfreda Fisher.
Canada, and Schell in particular, were sparked into life, with the full-back crossing three times in four minutes.
And it did not stop there, with Canada scoring two more tries as the second half wore on, either side of Fiji replacement Bulou Vasuturaga's red card for a high tackle before Karen Paquin added an 11th Canadian try.
B.Mclean--EWJ
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