Sarah Hunter: Red Roses won’t be caught out ‘chasing too many rabbits’

If you chase two rabbits, you catch neither. Assistant coach Sarah Hunter has warned against overcomplicating this week for the Red Roses, who will face Canada in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday afternoon.

England secured their place in a sixth consecutive Women’s World Cup Final after overcoming a valiant French side 35-17 at Bristol’s Ashton Gate in the semis, with fullback Ellie Kildunne receiving Player of the Match honours after scoring a double.

After losing the last two World Cup deciders to the Black Ferns, the current group of Red Roses are hoping to take out the top prize on home soil, with a record crowd of about 82,000 expected for a blockbuster bout between the top sides in women’s rugby.

Canada captain Alex Tessier on being the dark horse in RWC

Canada captain Alex Tessier on being the dark horse in RWC

Canada defeated two-time defending champions New Zealand 34-19 last Friday, with a point-scoring blitz in the first half leaving them in a strong position. They haven’t lost a match in 2025, and the same can be said for the Red Roses, who have won 62 of their last 63 Test matches.

The stage is now set and the countdown to kick-off is underway. England will continue to “stick to what we know” this week under the tutelage of coach John Mitchell, with Hunter saying their processes have worked over the last three years and that gives the playing group confidence.

“We have just stuck to our process as coaches,” Hunter told reporters.

“We’ve stuck to how we preview, how we review, getting our plan ready and delivering that to the players so actually we don’t get caught in the trap of thinking, ‘oh we need to do this’ or almost chasing too many rabbits.

“I think that’s the one thing, the experience, probably Mitch has brought in along with how we’ve grown is that actually we stick to what we know and we go after key things so we’re not giving the players too much to think about.

“Just really clear, concise, simple messages that they can then go and deliver.”

England’s road to the World Cup Final has featured a series of dominant performance, with the tournament hosts finishing pool play with a +191 points differential. The Red Roses then turned their focus to the knockout rounds, defeating Scotland and France in back-to-back weekends.

As for the Canadians, they scored 147 points during their first three matches at the World Cup, including a 40-19 win over the Scots. Canada got the better of Pac Four rivals Australia and New Zealand in the knockout rounds, and are searching for an all-time result in the finale.

RugbyPass reported on Tuesday what it’ll mean to the Red Roses to play in front of 80,000+ fans at Allianz Stadium. While both teams are in top form ahead of the tournament decider, the Red Roses will cherish the chance to compete with such a big crowd cheering them on.

“The girls experience large crowds. We’ve played at the Allianz in front of nearly 60,000 so it’s not going to be the first time where they’ve gone into a stadium where there’s been noise,” Hunter explained.

“It’s about just leaning into it, in knowing that a majority of fans there are for the team to support them, to galvanise and get behind… you feed on that energy, especially knowing what this game is going to be.

“It’s a cliché but they almost become the 16^th person, don’t they? Those moments where you need them, and I think that’s something that is really advantageous to us playing in a home World Cup.”