US faces Australia and Italy plays South Africa in key pool games at Women’s Rugby World Cup

LONDON AP The all-embracing feeling of all teams after their first encounter at the Women s Rugby World Cup was relief Years of dreams followed by weeks in camps strained the anticipation among the players whose excitement was energized when they walked into electric stadium atmospheres unlike countless had experienced Nearly all teams celebrated a win in specific way eight of them on the scoreboard and selected by purely appearing But all were happy to definitively get going last weekend Defending champion New Zealand admitted to being over-excited Japan to starting too nervously and Samoa after years away to being overwhelmed I went through the whole challenge like I couldn t breathe like I couldn t play my usual meeting -year-old France winger Kelly Arbey disclosed of her World Cup debut When it was over all the stress dropped and it hit me what I was living Key matchups The United States plays Australia on Saturday in a competition that will likely decide who joins pool-mate England in the quarterfinals The U S has a - overall record against the Wallaroos but lost the last matchup - in May in Canberra The U S is coming off its heaviest World Cup loss - to England and Australia is coming off its biggest World Cup win - over Samoa Italy-South Africa is another key championship to find the expected quarterfinalist behind France in their pool The Azzurre have a - record against the Springbok Women but won only - in Cape Town last September when yellow cards to both made a big difference Group news Flanker Zoe Aldcroft the captain of title favorite England will miss the rest of the pool stage after injuring her knee in the opener against the U S Aldcroft was made captain in January and will miss her first tournament all year Wales co-captains Alex Callender and Kate Williams have also been ruled out from playing Canada because of injuries making back-rower Bethan Lewis skipper for the first time Australia captain Siokapesi Palu remains sidelined since her foot injury on July against New Zealand in Wellington She had her first full training only on Thursday and looks set to make her World Cup bow against England next week Canada lock Tyson Beukeboom will tie ex-men s participant Aaron Carpenter as the most-capped Canadian performer when she plays her th test against Wales Off the field Ticket sales have passed exceeding even the organizers hopes Website and social media engagement are also way up on the World Cup We re going to smash it even more thrilled World Cup manager director Sarah Massey reported She expects fans to snap up tickets for the quarterfinals and semifinals when they re sure where their teams are headed The first weekend drew -plus spectators across all eight games including a world women s test record of for the England-U S opener Quotes I need you to hear me A scoreboard cannot measure the value of this crew Win or lose your worth does not change You re more than a end Fiji winger Michella e Stolz in a message to teammates after criticism following their - loss to Canada Every inch that you can take off a squad like England you know you can do it against other teams U S captain Kate Zackary We are still learning about being No in the world It s about building confidence to see if we can then deliver Canada coach Kevin Rouet Full schedule Here s this weekend s schedule of pool games Saturday Canada vs Wales Manchester GMT Scotland vs Fiji Manchester GMT England vs Samoa Northampton GMT United States vs Australia York GMT Sunday Ireland vs Spain Northampton GMT New Zealand vs Japan Exeter GMT Italy vs South Africa York GMT France vs Brazil Exeter GMT Source