Germany's first women's international in 18 months ended in a comprehensive 44-10 win over hosts Finland in the Rugby Europe Women's Trophy 2024-25 on Saturday.
Captain Mette Zimmat (pictured) played a starring role as the centre crossed for four tries to help Germany recover from a slow start, which was hardly surprising considering they hadn't played since losing 20-5 to Portugal in April 2023.
Germany took the lead in the ninth minute when Zimmat crossed for her first try and Charlotte Malaizier added the conversion, but Finland hit back with two unconverted tries.
Wing Oona Tolppanen and Zimmat's opposite number, Emmi Ovaskainen, scored in the 20th and 35th minutes and it looked for all the world as though Finland would hold a 10-7 advantage at the break. However, Zimmat scored her second of the match on the stroke of half-time to make it 12-10 to Germany.
Thereafter, there was only one winner as Germany ran away with the contest in the second half, scoring 29 points without reply.
Zimmat brought up her hat-trick with a brilliant run to the line before her midfield partner, Johanna Hacker, dotted down twice in the space of four minutes to put Germany well and truly in command.
Wing Steffi Gruber scored a sixth try, which Malaizier turned into seven points with the conversion before converting a try of her own.
Fittingly, Zimmat had the final word when she scored her fourth try on the stroke of full-time to cap a quite brilliant display from Germany's standout women's player.
"I think we can be very satisfied, even though it was a close game until the second half," said head coach Gareth Jackson.
"It was also important to see that all the players on the bench had an immediate and positive effect on the game when they came on.
"Of course, we also saw things that we need to continue to work on, but overall we are happy with today's performance."
Germany will pick up 0.49 points to improve their rating in the World Rugby Women's Rankings to 50.91. Unfortunately for Germany that will still leave them in 21st place, 1.81 points in arrears of Sweden.
Finland will drop down a place, to 37th, once the rankings are officially updated at 12 noon BST (GMT+1), with Jamaica the team leapfrogging them.
Photo: Finland RU
