Red Roses secure place in Women’s Rugby World Cup Final
The Red Roses overcame France 20-3 to set up a Women’s Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand on Saturday.
Emily Scarratt got the first points of the game with a penalty on the 17-minute mark before France wing Shannon Izar slotted from the tee to make it 3-3 at half-time.
In a tight game with few try scoring opportunities, Kay Wilson’s break out wide almost led to a try before Scarratt got her second penalty to nudge England ahead.
A succession of pick and drives near the France line saw Sarah Bern crash over for the first try of the game and her first at international level.
France had a score ruled out after a try saving tackle by Meg Jones and then the centre latched onto a handling error to score England’s second try and book a place in Saturday’s final (26 August, live on ITV – 19:45 pm BST).
England Women head coach Simon Middleton said: “It was game befitting of a World Cup semi-final. France has been incredible in this tournament and we’ve seen both sides of them with the flair, but they showed their toughness tonight.
“We had to fight every inch of the way but I’m absolutely thrilled. We said at half-time if we were patient and we kept the tempo up, tweaked what we were doing a little bit and were patient in the 22 we would get on top of them. We dominated the second-half or large periods of it, and it was a testament to France’s defence that they were in the game right until the end.”
Middelton added: “We’ve been in a lot of tough situations this year, a lot of pressurised situations and have come out of the right side of them all, and we’ve one more to do. They won’t need pointing in any direction and they’ll know exactly what it will take on Saturday.”
England captain Sarah Hunter said: “We’ve done the job that we wanted and every player from one to 23 deserves a huge amount of credit.
“Our defence won that game, there was never any concern it our minds that France was going to cross our try line. They came at us, they played well and gave us our toughest test so far but we had the right mindset and fought for every inch out there.”
England will return to the Kingspan Stadium on Saturday 26th August to play in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final against New Zealand.
England match-day 23 against France, Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017
15. Danielle Waterman (Bristol, 74 caps)
14. Lydia Thompson (Worcester Valkyries, 37)
13. Emily Scarratt (Lichfield, 73 caps)
12. Rachael Burford (Harlequins Ladies, 71 caps)
11. Kay Wilson (Richmond, 48 caps)
10. Katy Mclean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 90 caps)
9. Natasha Hunt (Lichfield, 40 caps)
1. Vickii Cornborough (Harlequins Ladies, 30 caps)
2. Amy Cokayne (Lichfield, 32 caps)
3. Sarah Bern (Bristol, 14 caps)
4. Abbie Scott (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 20 caps)
5.Tamara Taylor (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 108 caps)
6. Alex Matthews (Richmond, 36 caps)
7. Marlie Packer (Bristol, 50 caps)
8. Sarah Hunter (Bristol, 97 caps) (C)
16. Vicky Fleetwood (Saracens, 64 caps)
17. Rochelle Clark (Worcester Valkyries, 128 caps)
18. Justine Lucas (Lichfield, 26 caps)
19. Harriet Millar-Mills (Lichfield, 50 caps)
20. Izzy Noel-Smith (Bristol, 35 caps)
21. La Toya Mason (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, 69 caps)
22. Amber Reed (Bristol, 43 caps)
23. Megan Jones (Bristol, 8 caps)
Semi-Final Result
England 20 – 3 France
Tries: Bern, Jones
Conversions: Scarratt (2)
Penalties: Scarratt (2)
Results Pool B
England 56 – 5 Spain
Tries: Jones, Wilson (4), Scarratt, Millar-Mills, Matthews, Cokayne, Thompson
Conversions: Mclean (2), Scarratt
England 56 – 13 Italy
Tries: Scarratt (2), Matthews, Thompson (2), Cokayne, Taylor, Waterman (2), Wilson Hardy
Conversions: Scarratt (2) Reed
England 47 – 26 USA
Tries: Scarratt, Penalty try, Packer (2), Mclean, Wilson Hardy, Cokayne
Conversions: Scarratt (5), Penalty try
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