Purple Roses prolong profitable run to 31 video games to e book World Cup semi-final towards France; Scotland nonetheless chasing a primary victory since 1999 over England as World Cup marketing campaign ends with complete defeat
Final Up to date: 14/09/25 8:02pm
England via to World Cup semi-final towards France
England’s forwards bulldozed a path into the World Cup semi-finals with a wet-weather masterclass underpinning a 40-8 victory at Ashton Gate.
The Purple Roses will meet France for a spot within the closing after registering a thirty first successive victory with a dominant efficiency that confirmed their standing as event favourites.
Scotland had been pulverised on the scrum as a part of a one-sided battle up entrance and had been prevented from venturing exterior their very own territory for a lot of the second half because the promising indicators seen in the course of the group stage rapidly turned a distant reminiscence.
Natasha Hunt and Holly Aitchison supplied England with clever path at half-back, significantly Aitchison who marked her first begin of the event following an ankle harm by displaying the variability in her sport.
However a rain-swept afternoon belonged to the forwards, who equipped 4 of their six tries, with the number of second row Morwenna Talling as participant of the match reflecting the energy of their pack.
The scoring charge slowed within the second half and there have been spells the place they drifted alongside, but it surely was in any other case a complete win towards Six Nations rivals who at the least crossed via Rhona Lloyd on the stroke of full-time.
Morwena Talling accomplished England’s first-half turnaround
Whereas France had struggled to dispatch their underdog opponents earlier within the afternoon, England confirmed no such big-match jitters in negotiating their quarter-final task in Bristol.
By the top of the primary quarter they’d swallowed up an encouraging Scotland begin, leaked three factors to the boot of Helen Nelson and crossed twice with the tries setting the tone for the ahead dominance to come back.
First Kelsey Clifford twisted and turned in a strong surge over the road earlier than Talling blasted over from quick vary with England completely happy to let their forwards take management.
Simply when it appeared just like the wind had been taken out of their sails, although, they produced a monster scrum that led to a renewal of their assault on the road.
Scotland gamers applaud their supporters at full-time
A maul attempt was dominated out for offside and the slippery ball made dealing with treacherous, but it surely was an extended cross by Aitchison that despatched Abby Dow over for her fiftieth Take a look at attempt after Scotland had been softened up via the center.
Alex Matthews was having a stormer at No 8, and Dow unleashed a devastating 50-22 that pinned the blue shirts again of their 22, with the assault producing a second attempt for Clifford.
Matthews’ wonderful pick-up and the notice of Hunt made the rating doable, as did the ascendancy of England’s scrum, which continued to present the Scots a torrid time early within the second half.
A maul attempt for Amy Cokayne saved the foot on their throats, however the tempo of the sport then dropped considerably with the Purple Roses huffing and puffing within the 22 with out reward.
The scoring finally resumed within the sixty fifth when Aitchison bought on the top of a break, however the closing act belonged to Scotland when Lloyd completed a sweeping late assault.
