Neither England nor the USA could force a win in Bermuda's very first female rugby international at Nationals on Saturday, but the fact the match was played at all was a victory for the women's game.

Women's rugby is extremely strong in the United States, and in the British Isles there are more than 100 teams competing in six divisions in England, two in Ireland, four in Scotland and two in Wales.

With that in mind it would seem a natural progression to include at least one match in the local tournament.

Certainly the crowd, the vast majority of whom had probably never seen women's rugby, were fully behind the two teams as they fought out a physical and at times fast flowing 10-10 draw.

Referee John Pearson, one of England's top men in the middle who watched the game from the sidelines, said in some aspects women's rugby was on a par with their male counterparts.

"Many referees make the mistake of patronising women players by adapting the laws of the game in certain situations,'' he said. "But the skill level is very high, even if they are not as quick across the park as the men. It is full-on rugby and it ought to be refereed as such.'' England drew first blood as the contest got underway, Sonya Harris going over on the left after play had been switched from the opposite side of the field.

As in some of the men's games the women declined to take conversions and as a result the scores were tied when the USA's Jane Mitchell -- whose twin sister was playing for England -- evaded English clutches to race from just inside her own half for a score in the 22nd minute.

England restored their five point advantage just two minutes later when Assunta De Biasse touched down.

Undeterred the Americans kept attacking and their efforts were rewarded right on half-time when Jen Crawford finished off a good move on the right hand.

Much of the pressure in the second half came from the English, but through a combination of turnovers and last-ditch tackling the scores remained locked.

Canada 35 Iberians 20 Canada's Bermuda-born captain Mark Wyatt made it a memorable first trip back to the Island by leading his adopted homeland to victory in the World Rugby Classic Plate final.

Knocked out of the Classic proper after a disappointing loss to eventual champions South Africa, the Big Red Machine got better and better as the tournament progressed.

After beating the USA 40-5 on Thursday, they went on to defeat the joint Spanish and Portuguese side 35-20 to secure the Plate a year after they reached the final of the main event.

"After Monday afternoon's game there was a lot of apprehension among the boys as to whether we could deliver the goods,'' Wyatt said.

"There was a number of guys who haven't played a lot of rugby over the years, but we settled down and it was good after that South Africa game to get some footings.

"We played very, very well against the Americans and today things fell apart at times but ultimately when we played to what we wanted to do, which is keep it tight and run forwards and bring our backs up at second, third and fourth phase ball, we were successful. But when we got away from that game plan we started to drop the ball.'' Wyatt said the Canadians had not had it all their own way and paid tribute to the Iberian debutants.

"All credit to the Iberian squad because we were starting to run out of gas and they started to mount a comeback. There was a time in that second-half when we thought `Jeez, we've got to shore things up,'' he said.