The first weekend of WXV saw six matches take place, three in each of WXV2 and WXV3.
WXV2 Results
Italy beat Japan 28-15. This was a decent game, with quite a bit of back and forth, but Italy always looked in control.
Scotland beat South Africa 31-17. As with the previous match, Scotland always looked fairly comfortable here, but South Africa are improving rapidly.
USA beat Samoa 36-26. If you only watch one match in full, make it this one. There was real jeopardy in this match, and Samoa look really dangerous. They’re going to cause some chaos.
WXV3
These matches were rather one sided.
Fiji beat Columbia 67-13. Fijiana are still developing, but their 7s side is well-established and their 15s have the skills, just not the experience to beat some of the other teams.
Ireland beat Kazakhstan 109-0. Ireland were definitely the weakest of the Women’s Six Nations teams, they lack numbers and depth, but they’re professional and building. It’s probably between them and Fijiana to win this.
Spain beat Kenya 32-0. Honestly I don’t know much about these teams.
Coming up
WXV1
England face Australia, Canada face Wales and New Zealand face France.
The last of these should, for the neutrals be the big one, 2 v 3 in the rankings and a repeat of the World Cup semi-final. To most G&GR readers, I think the first match will catch the eye. Will the new look Red Roses maintain their dominance as the world number 1’s?
WXV2
USA face Scotland, Italy face South Africa and Japan face Samoa.
Scotland and Italy really should win their matches. Japan v Samoa could be lots of fun.
WXV3
Kazakhstan face Kenya. Spain face Fiji (easy win for Fiji I think). Ireland face Colombia (easy win for Ireland).
Watching
I don’t know what Stan’s doing, but the RugbyPassTV app is showing me both highlights and full matches in the UK. That’s despite there being an official broadcaster. I know a friend can watch in France without a VPN via the website and app. They have a different broadcaster over the channel.
You should be able to create an account free and download the app on any device. In keeping with super-successful World Rugby’s social media policy their rugbypass tv page is a complete disaster and best avoided. Their app is pretty good though. The actual WXV league page is bright, but easy to use.
I used the app to watch highlights (there was a lot of rugby this weekend) and then went back to watch two of the six games in full.
