Wales win pool finale but coach frustrated by slack approach

WALES scored four tries in the final half hour to beat

Hong Kong 39-15 and break their duck in the Women’s World Cup on Thursday.

Already out of the semifinals contention following defeats to New Zealand and Canada, Wales were made to work hard by the lowranked Asian team which left head coach Rowland Phillips frustrated.

“We were very competitive against New Zealand, and then against Canada. Today, however, this was not so good,” he said.

“I’m really disappointed. Our attitude and our concentration need to be 100 per cent to really compete against the top teams. I didn’t see that today. We just didn’t perform to an acceptable level .

“I want us to be more the team that played New Zealand and Canada and less the team that played Hong Kong.” Shona Powell-Hughes,

below, opened the scoring for Wales but they found themselves trailing 10-7 after Adrienne Garvey kicked a penalty and then converted a try by Natasha Olson-Thorne.

Wales responded with two tries to lead 17-10 at half-time, both of them the result of cross-kicks by flyhalf Elinor Snowsill.

First she went right and dropped the ball on a sixpence for winger KavanaghWilliams; then she went across to the left and bounced the ball right in front of Jasmine Joyce, who just managed to hold onto it and touch down. Chong Ka Yan closed the gap to two points with a try for Hong Kong early in the second half but Wales finally got to grips with the game and pulled away with Kavanagh-Williams and Carys Phillips going over before flanker Sioned Harries was rewarded for her strong running with two tries in the final 10 minutes. New Zealand made sure they wouldn’t fail to reach the semi-finals for the second World Cup in succession as they blew away Canada 48-5 to end the pool stages as top seeds. Losing to Ireland in the pools back in 2014, the Black Ferns had to do with fifth place in France but they left nothing to chance this time, picking up all 15 match points available. The Kiwis scored eight tries in total against the 2014 finalists with prop Aldora Itunu helping herself to a hat-trick. There was another pool decider on Thursday with France taking on hosts Ireland to determine who would face England in the semi-finals. It was Les Bleues who came out on top with a superb three-try first-half display giving them a 21-0 lead and they never looked back despite Cliodhna Moloney going over late on for the Irish. In the other two games of the round, Spain overcame Italy 22-8 while Australia beat Japan 29-15.