The Australian women’s rugby team has made a stunning comeback, defeating Wales 37-5 in their WXV2 tournament opener in Cape Town. Just a week after suffering a historic loss to Wales, the Aussies turned the tables with a scintillating display of running rugby, scoring six tries in a dominant performance.
The team’s fly-half, 19-year-old sensation Ruby James, led the charge with a superb display, inspiring her teammates to a remarkable turnaround. The Aussies got off to a flying start, with scrum-half Ava Lee scoring a sniping try in the opening minutes. Wales fought back, with hooker Gwen Thomas crashing over from a driving maul on the half-hour mark, but the Australians were unstoppable.
A barnstorming run from prop Sofia Rodriguez on the stroke of halftime changed the momentum of the game, and the Aussies emerged from the break with renewed energy. James kicked a penalty, and then winger Lily Patel raced clear down the right edge for the first of her two tries. The Aussies continued to attack with abandon, with James and replacement Maya Singh both dotting down for scores as the team’s scrum mastery allowed them to dominate.
The pièce de résistance came when Patel took James’ neat offload, sliced through two Welsh defenders, slalomed past two more, and careered to the line with a despairing tackler hanging off her, capping off an incredible individual try from the halfway line.
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