England women land decisive victory over Canada
England Women finished the Old Mutual Wealth Series with a seven-try victory over Canada at Twickenham on Saturday.
Alex Matthews opened the scoring for the Red Roses before Amy Cokayne went over for England’s second from a driving maul, the side’s fifth such try in four autumn Tests.
Danielle Waterman then scored an impressive solo try as she weaved in and out of Canadian defenders from her own 22, in her first Test at the Twickenham since 2011. However, Canada responded with two Andrea Burk penalties to leave them only nine points behind at half-time.
England returned for the second half maintaining the tempo of the first with Kay Wilson showing electric pace to put down in the corner.
Emily Scarratt then raced away four minutes later to score their fifth before Lydia Thompson scored her second in as many games as England showed their attacking prowess.
Replacement Claire Allan dived over in the corner 14 minutes from time as England rounded off 2016 with an impressive win in front of a home crowd of over 12,000.
Head coach Simon Middleton said: “That was a brilliant way to end the Series. I am really pleased with the manner in which the team executed our game plan.
“It is always special to come out and play at Twickenham and the girls certainly delivered a great performance, both in attack and defence. There is still a lot for us to work on, but that has given us confidence today.”
The result reinstated England to second in the World Rankings behind New Zealand after they had slipped down to third to Canada following the 20-25 defeat last weekend by the Black Ferns.
The Red Roses also exacted revenge for the 52-17 loss to the Canadians in Salt Lake City in the Summer Series in July.
Captain Sarah Hunter said: “It was the response we needed as a team, we’ve talked quite honestly during the week about where it went wrong against New Zealand.
“We scored seven tries tonight against a good Canada side, and to back that up we had a world-class defence. You talk about defence winning games at times, we stifled them really well. They put huge pressure on us and came close to our line but we held strong. We want to have a world-class defence heading into the World Cup next year and we’ve certainly started to build that.”
England 39 – 6 Canada
Tries: Matthews (8), Cokayne (26), Waterman (37), Wilson (45), Scarratt (49), Thompson (51), Allan (65)
Conversions: Scott (51, 55)
England Women match day 23 v Canada
15 Danielle Waterman (Bristol, 64 caps, Allan (59))
14 Lydia Thompson (Worcester Valkyries, 27 caps)
13 Emily Scarratt (Lichfield, 61 caps)
12 Rachael Burford (Aylesford Bulls, 60 caps, Jones (56))
11 Kay Wilson (Richmond, 39 caps)
10 Emily Scott (Saracens, 16 caps)
9 La Toya Mason (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 59 caps, Hunt (40))
1 Rochelle Clark (Worcester Valkyries, 117 caps, Cornborough (45))
2 Amy Cokayne (Lichfield, 20 caps, Croker (56))
3 Laura Keates (Worcester Valkyries, 56 caps, Bern (66))
4 Tamara Taylor (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 98 caps)
5 Harriet Millar-Mills (Lichfield, 38 caps)
6 Alex Matthews (Richmond, 26 caps)
7 Izzy Noel-Smith (Bristol, 24 caps, Packer (49))
8 Sarah Hunter (Bristol, 85 caps, Cleall (59)) (c)
16 Emma Croker (Richmond, 64 caps)
17 Vickii Cornborough (Aylesford Bulls, 21 caps)
18 Sarah Bern (Bristol, 4 caps)
19 Poppy Cleall (Bristol, 7 caps)
20 Marlie Packer (Bristol, 40 caps)
21 Natasha Hunt (Lichfield, 33 caps)
22 Megan Jones (Bristol, 2 caps)
23 Claire Allan (Saracens, 36 caps)
Old Mutual Wealth Series
England 10 – 5 France
Wednesday 9 November
Twickenham Stoop
England 20 – 25 New Zealand
Saturday 19 November
Twickenham Stoop
England 39 – 6 Canada
Saturday 26 November
Twickenham
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