Purdy to captain England against South Africa

Posted on Aug 4, 2011 in England, English Rugby, Women's Rugby

Wasps prop Claire Purdy will captain England in their second Nations Cup clash, against South Africa on Friday evening, kick off 1030pm BST, at Appleby College, Ontario, Canada.

Head Coach Gary Street has made wide-spread changes to the team that defeated the USA 15-11 on Tuesday, which sees only Becky Essex, Kay Wilson, Alice Richardson and Joanne McGilchrist start a second successive game.

Richardson, who moves from the centre to fly-half, has also been handed the vice-captaincy armband while Sarah McKenna, Jenny Brightmore and Natasha Hunt earn their first ever starts for England after making their debuts off the bench on Tuesday. Bristol’s Marlie Packer will also start her second ever game for England after a late call-up to England’s Nations Cup squad following an injury to Jane Leonard.

“This game is the ideal opportunity to give everyone in the squad a start after a close fought game against USA,” said Street, whose side are the defending Nations Cup champions. “We are looking to improve on our performance against a South African team who will also be aiming to build on their 52-17 defeat to Canada earlier this week.

“We will also be starting Marlie Packer who has replaced the injured Jane Leonard. Although we are all deeply disappointed in losing Jane this is a great opportunity for Marlie who was here three years ago when the England Under 20s team won the Nations Cup.

“There were some pleasing performances from the six new caps on Tuesday and this game against South Africa gives us another opportunity to see more of them at international level.”

Nations Cup match action is available athttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-rugby

England

• 15        Kay     Wilson            (Richmond)
• 14        Katherine      Merchant       (Worcester)
• 13        Claire             Allan   (Richmond)
• 12        Sarah             McKenna       (Old Albanians)
• 11        Michaela        Staniford        (Wasps)
• 10        Alice   Richardson (VC)      (Richmond)
• 9          Natasha         Hunt   (Lichfield)
• 1          ClairePurdy  (C)      (Wasps)
• 2          Amy    Garnett           (Saracens)
• 3          Sophie           Hemming      (Bristol)
• 4          BeckyEssex(Richmond)
• 5          Rowena         Burnfield       (Richmond)
• 6          JennyBrightmore    (Worcester)
• 7          MarliePacker            (Bristol)
• 8          Jo        McGilchrist    (Wasps)

Replacements:       

• 16        Vicky  Fleetwood     (Lichfield)
• 17        Laura  Keates            (Worcester)
• 18        Tamara          Taylor(Darlington Mowden Park)
• 19        Sarah             Hunter            (Lichfield)
• 20        La Toya          Mason            (Wasps)
• 21        Katy    McLean          (Darlington Mowden Park)
• 22        Danielle         Waterman     (Worcester)

England Nations Cup playing schedule (Appleby College, Ontario):

August 2^nd USA v England KO 1130pm, WON 15-11

August 5^th South Africa v England KO 1030pm BST

August 9^th Canada v England KO 1130pm

August 13^th Finals Day KO TBC

Purdy warns Welsh must “Up their intensity”

Posted on Sep 23, 2010 in Rugby News

Martin Purdy has warned that London Welsh must up their intensity when they face Rotherham Titans at Old Deer Park on Saturday (3pm).

The former Wasps second row helped the Exiles up to fourth in the Championship table with a hard fought 21-10 win at Plymouth Albion last weekend.

It was Welsh’s third league win of the campaign, but a statistic matched by visitors Rotherham who sit just one place below Phil Greening’s side in the table on points difference.

The Titans have recorded impressive wins over Bristol, Nottingham and Bedford, while their only defeat came away to league leaders Worcester Warriors, 32-25.

“We need to up our intensity for Rotherham. We’ve looked at it and we’ve all identified what needs to be done, so hopefully we’ll come out firing,” said Purdy.

“Rotherham have started the season fantastically well and they’re looking very difficult to beat. They have a big pack and they look to come round the fringes and run hard and win those collisions, so if we tackle like we did last week we’ll lose the game.

“[v Plymouth] We weren’t really flying in as much we should have been, so that’s something we’ll be looking to remedy this weekend. We’ll have to up our intensity and physicality.”

Something Welsh will certainly need to do if they are to maintain their impressive defensive record of seeing their line breached just twice in their opening four league outings.

Against Plymouth last Saturday, second half tries from Errie Claassens and Tonga’uiha saw Welsh opened up an 18-3 lead, before a pushover try by Albion and the sin binning of Epi Taione gave the home side a lifeline. Welsh, though, were unruffled and held out for the win.

“The composure was pretty good, we didn’t panic and we didn’t start doing anything silly. We just stuck to what we were supposed to do. Going down there and not playing fantastically well and still winning is great,” said Purdy.

Purdy, who won Premiership and Heineken Cup titles with Wasps, joined Welsh from Italian side L’Aquila during the summer and has started all four of the Exiles’ league games this season.

“We haven’t really hit our full stride yet. We probably played our best against Nottingham, but just didn’t finish anything off,” he said.

“We haven’t quite put every thing together yet, which is perfectly as expected as it’s a new team, but as long as we keep building and keep improving up until February, we’ll make sure we’ll get it right then. But we’re certainly going in the right direction.”

England women score impressive victory over NZ

Posted on Nov 23, 2009 in Rugby News

England 10 New Zealand 3

England Women recorded their first victory over world champions New Zealand in eight years  in the Investec Challenge Double Header at Twickenham on Saturday with an impressive 10-3 win.

England, who last defeated the triple world champions in 2001, bounced back from a 16-3 defeat seven day ago to record the historic win just nine months before the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010 in London.

The Red Roses, playing in front of a record crowd of 12,500, were in impressive form, scoring the only try of the match courtesy of skipper Catherine Spencer. The Bristol No.8, on her 50th cap, also went on to win the Investec Women of the Match award. Vice-captain Katy McLean also stoked over the conversion and a second half drop goal.

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England Women must now wait for Twickenham to conquer Ferns

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 in Rugby News

England 3 New Zealand 16

England Women will have to wait until Saturday November 21st to have a second chance of conquering the reigning world champions New Zealand after today (Saturday) succumbing to a 16-3 defeat at Esher RFC.

In their first meeting against the Black Ferns since the 2006 Rugby World Cup final England produced a determined and gutsy performance but were let down by ill discipline in the first half which then left them playing catch-up in the second half.

England, however, will not get a better stage than Twickenham Stadium to reek their revenge when they compete in the Investec Challenge Double Header in a week’s time. The rematch kicks off immediately after the men’s match at 445pm, with entry to the stadium free at 415pm.

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