World Cup Kicks Off

Nicole Beck scores for Australia against Wales

Full image gallery here.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup got off to a cracking start in front of a sell-out crowd on Friday with wins for favourites New Zealand and England. Hopeful spectators without tickets were being turned away at the gates as the Surrey Sports Park filled to capacity to watch the opening matches of the tournament.

Team USA supporters enjoy a big victory

The USA thrashed Kazakhstan 51-0, helped along by a colourful and extraordinarily vocal band of bikini-clad supporters braving the elements. New Zealand also had a big 55-3 win over plucky South Africa, more of a demolition than anything else after psyching them out with the famous Haka and then playing hard and fast to run rings around the Springboks.

A ladies version of the Haka - no less fierce than the men's.

England shut out Ireland with a 27-0 win at the end of the day’s play. It was notable that both England and New Zealand play in a very similar way to the way their men’s teams play. England had lots of “pick-and-go” plays with crushing forward action, and New Zealand were very fast and fluent with both forward and back play. Both teams are very physical, and some of the hits are just exceptional. Maggie Alphonsie from England did an excellent Steffon Armitage impression with a thumping head-on tackle on an Irish player whom she then picked up and ran down the pitch carrying, before dumping her unceremoniously on the turf.

Danielle Waterman of England breaks an Irish tackle

Both Maggie Alphonsie and flanker Heather Fisher stood out for England, with the latter getting smashed in the face in a tackle early in the game. Fisher is a bit like a female version of Lewis Moody – fantastically aggressive, chasing everything and constantly on the move.

Heather Fisher spills blood for her country

Photographically, no real surprises here today. Using the ideal rugby setup a 400mm f/2.8 and a 70-200 f/2.8 on Canon 1DIV and 1DIII bodies, with occasional use of a 17-40 for spectator shots. Conditions were overcast with the light fairly constant, so manual mode was the order of the day, gradually increasing the ISO as the light dropped away during the England game. The IRB have set up a very nice media room with fast wifi, food, drink and very efficient team sheet prodution – super.

Next games are on Tuesday 24th of August which will give the players a well earned few days rest to recuperate.

Full results and upcoming fixtures on the rwcwomens.com web site.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 09:24 and is filed under Rugby Union and tagged with andrew tobin, AT, Australia, Black Ferns, contact, danielle waterman, editorial, England, guildford, haka, Heather Fisher, IRB, Ireland, ladies, New Zealand, Nicole Beck, personal use, photographs, physical, pictures, rugby, SLIK images, sport, surrey sports park, Wales, Women, womens rugby world cup, WRFU, www.rwcwomens.com. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.