After a shaky start, the She Devils used what should have been a tricky match to really assert themselves in this tournament, using their superior pace, passing and agility to outclass Seoul’s second team 15-0. The game began openly, with Seoul’s hugely experienced fly half controlling the ball while the home side had possession but with Beijing looking dangerous every time they broke with the ball.
The She Devils had eliminated the silly handling and discipline errors that did so much damage in their earlier encounter and their petite scrum line up of Karoliina Lehtonen, Marissa Cox and Kate Sliney/Charlie Surridge held up admirably against the power of the Seoul team. It was this pressure int he scrum that led to Beijings opening try, when scrum half Jeannie Ivanov spotted a gap don the blind side and pinched the ball out of the scrum to run in a try under pressure from Seoul’s cover chaser.
A second try followed shortly afterwards when Marissa Cox demonstrated that there’s more to her game than excellent tackling, when she powered through the middle of the Seoul defence to ground a determined try. From that moment the Seoul team began to tire, while Beijing stayed fresh and lively. Die to the absence of injured fly half Taylor, Coach Ben made an inspired decision to move Sammie Laauoleola into the ten position, where she caused no end of problems, running the ball in powerfully then popping off to Beijing’s pacey wingers.
Deep into the second half but still looking lively, Beijing hammered the final nail into Seoul’s coffin. Some excellent mauling and continued pressure from Karoliina Lehtonen and the Beijing forwards allowed them to get within 20 metres of the line, and when Laauoleola emerged with the ball she offloaded to Jeannie Ivanov who beat the last defender with a clever step to score in the corner.