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England end World Cup wait: Four takeaways from record-breaking final
By Martyn Thomas at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
England ended their 11-year wait for Women’s Rugby World Cup glory, beating Canada 33-13 in front a record crowd at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
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Canada stunned the 81,885 fans inside Twickenham as Asia Hogan-Rochester went over for the first of her two tries but a moment of magic from Ellie Kildunne helped turn the tide.
Amy Cokayne and Alex Matthews went over before the break, before Abbie Ward and Matthews again added further scores in the second half.
It confirms a third World Cup crown for England, who claim the title following back-to-back final defeats in 2017 and 2022.
Here is what we learned from a thrilling final.
Kildunne provides the spark for Red Roses
For five minutes, it looked as though Canada might just pull off the shock of the century.
Amid a cacophony of noise, it was the North Americans who settled quickest, unsettling their opponents and disrupting their lineout en route to the game’s opening try.
It looked as though the Red Roses needed something. A moment of magic or inspiration, and they got it from a familiar face.
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Kildunne seized the moment, broke through one tackle, danced around a couple more and was suddenly over the line. Her teammates and the majority of the record crowd celebrated wildly.
Zoe Harrison added the extras and a pressure valve was released. From that moment on, England were calm and the result rarely looked in doubt.
Every Harrison conversion took the Red Roses further into the distance and although the Player of the Match award rightly went to the brilliant Sadia Kabeya, this was a triumph that had started in one electric moment.
Take a bow, again, Ellie Kildunne.
England too powerful for Canada
For all the razzle-dazzle of their march to the final, Canada’s game is very much based on forward dominance.
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Canada’s set piece is what gives them the foundation to build phases of pressure, in turn creating the space that their sevens-coded stars can attack.
Unfortunately, on Saturday, Kevin Rouet’s side ran into a team that possesses a bigger, stronger and more ruthless forward juggernaut.
Except for the first lineout of the game, which Sophie de Goede disrupted and led to Hogan-Rochester’s opening try, England were superior at the set-piece throughout.
To the delight of the majority of the crowd, the Red Roses shoved Canada back at the first scrum and took that as evidence they should keep targeting their opponents in that area.
It was a tactic that rarely failed. England’s second try came from a driving maul, their third from an attacking scrum and they got over the line again from a lineout before the break only for it to get chalked off due to obstruction from Maud Muir.
Early in the second half, the Red Roses were awarded a penalty underneath the post. Did they kick at goal? Of course not.
England turned the screw at the scrum and then created the space for Ward to go over after Matthews had taken them up to the line.
Botterman England’s breakout star
Ellie Kildunne, Meg Jones and Co. might rightly get the headlines but if there has been a breakout star of England’s World Cup campaign it’s Hannah Botterman.
The loosehead prop was front and centre yet again on Saturday – for good and bad – forcing two crucial penalties in the final five minutes of the first half.
Her interventions came at the exact time that Canada appeared to be gaining a foothold in the match.
The first arrived less than two minutes after De Goede’s penalty had cut Canada’s deficit to 13 points, and the second as the North Americans were building pressure in the England half with the clock in the red.
Botterman making an impact at the breakdown is not exactly news. But what was noticeable was the reaction each time her face flashed up on the big screens.
A huge roar went up around the famous old ground as Botterman celebrated each one as if she had just run in a length-of-the-field try.
The prop has spoken this tournament about the effort she has made to improve on the pitch. Off it, she has given fans an insight into her personality via social media and the podcast she co-hosts with Jones.
Even if her afternoon did not end in the way she hoped, being sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle, no one present was left in any doubt about the results. Botterman is rapidly becoming one of the faces of this incredible team.
A truly momentous World Cup
Whatever happened on the pitch during 80 pulsating minutes at Allianz Stadium – and plenty went on inside the white lines – this World Cup has been a resounding success.
On the road from Sunderland to south-west London, via York, Manchester, Northampton, Exeter, Brighton, Bristol and everywhere in between, hearts, minds and most importantly, attention have been captured.
It is less than four years since England hosted Canada across the road at Twickenham Stoop in one of their first fixtures back following the pandemic, and beat the North Americans in front of around 6,000 people.
Of course there were always going to be more eyes on a World Cup at home but the journey towards a full Allianz Stadium was never guaranteed.
Nor was the pace at which tickets were snapped up for matches in Exeter, Bristol and Northampton for matches that didn’t include the Red Roses or any of the other home unions.
Around 440,000 fans clicked through the turnstiles over the past six weekends, and each of those fans would have left with a greater appreciation for the supreme athletes on display.
The challenge now for the Rugby Football Union, and World Rugby, is to capitalise on this success in a way that previous hosts New Zealand have not been able to.
As the wall of noise generated by the 81,885 inside Allianz Stadium on Saturday highlighted, they could not have a better platform from which to do so.
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