The Devils’ opening game defeat in this tournament served to illustrate exactly where improvement was needed in the second game – namely rucking, supporting play and passing, and the Devils went into this game determined to put some basics right, which they quickly did – having stamped their physical superiority in the opening tackles, Jeannie Ivanov pinched the ball from a poor ISB maul and ran an easy 15 metre try in for Marissa Cox to cooly convert.
Confidence duly boosted, the Devils took control of a scrappy game (played in extremely wet conditions), scoring three more tries before half time. The first was the product of a lovely solo run by the impressive Cox, who was tackled close to the line, but Jane Cheung nipped in to steal the undefended ball and hop over the line (Cox converted). Within seconds the Devils were back in ISB territory and Cox was once again involved, picking the ball out of a decent ruck and showing great strength to drive the ball over the line under pressure. Finally, the tireless Corrie Taylor capped an energetic tackling display with a well deserved score after a very powerful drive from Karoliina Lehtonen. 28-0 at half time.
The second half was more of the same – Fiona Boyle stretched her legs down the wing following a lovely pop off from Taylor and found the try line in the far corner, then a few minutes later Cox, Lehtonen, Ivanov and Charlie Surridge combined in the corner to score the try of the match. After an excellent sprint by Cox, Lehtonen collected the ball and drove towards the line put the Devils 10 metres away, and when the ball was popped of to captain Jeannie Ivanov she combined with Charlie Surridge to keep it alive through a series of short passes until she finally found the gap to ground the try.
Then in the dying minutes, new recruit Aurore Marie capped an impressive debut with a dazzling solo run to score under the posts and put the game well and truly beyond doubt, 42-0.