Canada survived a second half comeback from South Africa to get their Women's Nations Cup campaign off to a winning start in Oakville, while defending champions England were more convincing winners over France on match day two.
With little more than a year to go until the Women's Rugby World Cup in England, Canada were quickly out of the blocks and had seemingly wrapped up the match after establishing a 30-0 lead at half time at Appleby College.
However, South Africa - who had been denied a score late in the first half when hesitation from Onica Maoga allowed the Canadian defence to stop the attack short of the posts - rallied after the break and were rewarded with a run of 17 unanswered points.
Zandile Nojoko - who had scored 12 points in her side's 17-17 draw with France on day one - started the ball rolling with an early penalty and then just after the hour mark the fly half made a 30-metre run for South Africa's first try.
Canada "lucky to hang on"
There was still more than 10 minutes remaining in the match when South Africa cut the deficit to 30-17 with wing Natasha Hofmeester's try and Nojoko's conversion, but they were unable to make any further inroads with replacement scrum half Julia Sagawara scoring a late try for the hosts.
"We always expect Canada to come out strong," said South Africa coach Denver Wannies. "We played a much better game than we played against France in the second half. We started off slowly, but we managed to pick away at them."
His counterpart John Long - who had seen Brooke Hilditch, Laura Stoughton, Marlene Donaldson, Brittany Waters and Ashley Patzer cross for first half tries - admitted Canada were "lucky to hang on."
"I think we started extremely well," continued Long. "In the second half their forwards really started to dominate around the contact area, giving their half backs a good opportunity to play.
"We were lucky to hang on. They came back and hit us very well and it showed."
Seven star England
Defending champions England made it two wins from two as they built on a 36-7 opening victory over USA on Monday to run out convincing 43-8 winners over their fellow Six Nations side France.
England, who had beaten France 52-7 en route to a fourth successive Six Nations title back in March, did have to come from behind at Appleby College after wing Emilie Moreaux touched down in the 10th minute.
Danielle Waterman levelled the scores before France edged ahead with a penalty from centre Christelle Le Duff, the most experienced member of their Nations Cup squad.
England then began to take control with wing Kat Merchant scoring two first half tries, the first coming after a strong hand off and 40-metre run with the second following some excellent interplay between the forwards and backs.
Leading 19-8 at half time, England were quick to increase that within minutes of the restart when Merchant came in off her wing to round off a flowing move and complete her hat-trick.
Room for improvement
"Although it's nice to score a hat-trick, I was in the right place at the right time," said Merchant. "It was a great team performance and I am really looking forward to our next test against South Africa."
A quickly taken tap by number 8 Karen Jones enabled Waterman to scythe through the French defence and link up with Alice Richardson for England's fifth try over the evening.
There was still time for Waterman and promising teenager Emily Scarratt to cross for further tries, although forwards coach Graham Smith admits there is still plenty of work to be done in their remaining three matches.
"We're still making too many basic errors but we are only two games into our season. It was a fantastic result and we know we can continue to improve throughout the tournament."
England will sit out the next round of matches on Sunday, when Canada - who are the only side other than England to post a victory in the tournament thus far - will tackle France and USA face South Africa at Appleby College.
