Red Roses promise more after Wallaroos expose 'teething issues'

2020 was the last time England’s Red Roses trailed a game at half-time. A stat that feels like it was plucked from a video game career mode or even dreamt up. But it is true.

Just like six years ago the Red Roses had to dig deep to win. Although this time it was Australia and not France who stood in their way.

Ultimately, England picked up a 48-15 win over the Wallaroos. Their second-half performance saw England cross the whitewash seven times to make the 10-5 scoreboard that read in favour of the visitors seem like a distant memory.

In both teams’ first game of WXV Global Series 2026, the Wallaroos started the brightest. Coached by their Director of Women’s High Performance, Tim Walsh, and a host of interim coaches, Australia found ways to frustrate England.

Up front the Wallaroos were physical. Each tackle was made to sting. Every clear-out designed to leave England players a little fearful of reaching the breakdown first. It truly was a fantastic insight into what this team could be capable of when incoming head coach Sione Fukofuka takes his post at the start of 2027.

It was as the game wore on that England found space. Since the start of 2026 much has been made of the attacking identity that they want to adopt – an identity that will see multi-phase and high-intensity attack. As of right now we are yet to see it consistently enough and the Red Roses still revert to the forward-oriented approach that helped them to Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 glory.

So far as England are concerned, this was just the start of two months that are going to challenge them. Three Test matches against Canada and one against the Black Ferns now await — four matches that will pose a far greater threat to the Red Roses’ 39-match unbeaten run.

“They definitely made us work for it,” Burton told BBC Sport. “The message at half-time was that we knew we weren’t at our best.

“We really needed to come out after half-time and rip back into them and bring it to them physically, because they came out absolutely gunning.

“At the end that cohesiveness finally started to click. There’s so much more to come for this team. Just a few teething issues to sort out.”

In his full-time interview on BBC Sport, John Mitchell described the fixture as “preseason” for his team.

The Red Roses have not played a game since May and have only been in camp six weeks ahead of their WXV Global Series opener.

The Wallaroos squad, in contrast, had been playing Super Rugby Women’s immediately before joining up, and even played the Black Ferns last month.

Even so, the 62-year-old showed no sign of concern at his team’s half-time deficit and could only see positives in his team’s performance.

“It was the first preseason game of the year where we had the reality of playing rugby and had to solve [problems], which is good for us,” Mitchell said. “It is an absolute joke if you are worried about being down 10-5.

“More important is how we worked our way back into it. We got 23 players with rugby [into them], and it was a 43-point second half.”