Player comparisons: England win but stutter against Wallaroos

In front of over 30,000 people at Amex Stadium, England beat Australia 47-7 securing their place at the top of the pool, but despite the convincing score line, it was by far the Red Roses worst performance of the pool stages.

A stop-start encounter saw Australia implement an impressive game plan for the first half an hour which saw England unable to build momentum. The Wallaroos started strongly with a well-executed maul try in the fifth minute scored by Adiana Talakai. England followed up with no other than Jess Breach scorching over on the occasion of her 50th cap two minutes later.

But a missed conversion and a raft of uncharacteristic unforced errors from England meant the Wallaroos kept their lead up until the 32nd minute- something not many would have predicted before the game.

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An Abbie Ward try followed by a Sadia Kabeya score meant England went into half-time 19-7 up, but not a convincing opening 40 from the hosts.

The second half saw two tries from Kelsey Clifford off the back of England’s dominant set piece with Kabeya also adding a second and Sarah Bern adding her name to the score sheet when she came on for Maud Muir.

Front row-Advantage England
Considering England scored five tries from their set piece dominance, speaks to their front row athletes. Hannah Botterman went off with an injury on 24 minutes after recording 12 tackles- that’s one every two minutes, the prop was replaced by Clifford who scored a brace. Amy Cokayne held up a certain Australia try, but also had a few unforced errors including on the Wallaroos try line. Bern scored but was given a yellow card after she came on with starter Muir having a solid, unflashy game, recording 16 tackles.

Wallaroos hooker Adiana Talakai scored Australia’s first try and was steady in her line out throws with pin point darts.

Second row- Advantage England
Rosie Galligan led the dominant tackles stats with partner Abbie Ward leading the completed tackles with 18. Ward scored a pick and go try which ensured the Red Roses went into the lead for the first time in the match whilst managing and jumping in the line out expertly. Kaitlan Leany recorded the second most carries of the match.

Back row- Advantage England
Morwenna Talling, Sadia Kabeya and Alex Matthews made thunderous tackles, were impressive in their line speed defence and grafted hard, none more consistent than player of the match and captain for the day, Matthews.

A steady return from injury for Wallaroos captain Siokapesi Palu against none other than the number one side in the world.

Half-backs- Honours Even
Natasha Hunt brought the tempo and showed she is silky smooth under pressure, her rugby intelligence and experience came to the fore when she grubbered on a kick after a mistake from fly-half Faitala Moleka which led to Kabeya’s second score to put yet more daylight between the teams.

Zoe Harrison, produced long clearance kicks which helped clear England’s lines and relieve pressure, plus her strong distribution skills and intuition was on show knowing when to go short or when to give the miss pass, plus her accuracy of pass when running at pace opened up opportunities for England.

On the other side of the coin scrum-half Samantha Wood kicked a 50-22 in the 27th minute when Australia were on top showing composed execution under pressure for the 21-year-old, as well as kicking a conversion from a difficult angle. Moleka also joined in on the 50-22 act but made a mistake to allow Hunt to grubber through to allow England to score and pull away in the second half.

Centres- Honours even
Not a particularly noticeable performance from either pair of centres, both making their tackles but finding it hard to click in midfield.

Back three- Advantage England
Breach scored England’s first try in her usual mesmeric style, Abby Dow had a quiet game until breaking through the line with magnificent feet and pace on 50 minutes.

Ellie Kildunne had a first half she won’t want to watch back in a hurry after being unusually error strewn, but the second half saw her execute a 50-22 early on which led to England’s bonus point try, the full back struggled to get a foothold in the game before coming off for a head injury assessment.

Australia’s Desiree Miller didn’t have too many opportunities but was her usually nippy self and at times hard to handle for the Red Roses. The winger made a great covering tackle on Dow before England’s first try.

Maya Stewart also had limited opportunities in attack but full back Caitlyn Halse continued to show her potential after making a number of hard hitting crucial tackles in defence including on Dow, as the winger sprinted unopposed into Australia’s 22.