It may take several days to dry, but England are in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Although the monsoon rain in Auckland initially made this look more like a game of water polo, there was never any danger of the Red Roses letting victory slip away and it has now been 29 Tests since they were beaten.
However, to say that they had a bad time of this one, would be the literal truth. Even allowing for the fact that the first half might have been a bit drier for everyone involved if it had taken place at a car wash, this was hardly a classic. Fair play to the organizers for playing Rihanna’s Umbrella over the PA in the second half, but there wasn’t much fun to be had.
Clearly the conditions would always dictate the approach close to England and very apt too. Rugby is clearly not decided by aesthetic beauty and it was clearly not a day to throw the ball. With Marlie Packer claiming a short-range hat-trick, England still scored seven tries without doing anything particularly spectacular.
Even allowing for the fact that the first half could have been a bit drier for all involved if it had taken place at a car wash, it didn’t make for classic viewing for the neutral. Fair play to the organizers for playing Rihanna’s Umbrella over the PA in the second half, but there wasn’t much fun otherwise.
England’s execution was also a mixed bag at times, even considering Australia’s strong resistance and the wet ball. Although the industry of Packer and Abbie Ward, allied to the consistent dominance of the Red Roses’ scrum, was typically admirable and the Wallaroos spent much of the afternoon in their own half, it still looked like this talented side had month.
Job done though and onwards and upwards to Eden Park this Saturday. Defensively, they remain tough to break down and Packer had another productive day at the breakdown. The first half was also memorable for slightly perverse reasons, with the clocks going back in the UK, meaning the first half was over before it had technically started. An abbreviated contest would certainly have pleased Australia, with the task of stopping England’s mammoth pack clearly unenviable.
As early as the eighth minute they couldn’t stop a flurry which concluded with Sarah Hunter making her record 138th appearance for her country, tapping in from around six inches. Emily Scarratt’s conversion made it 7-0 and the chances of England not scoring again for another 20 minutes felt as remote as the sunrise.
It didn’t help that Zoe Aldcroft was booked for a slightly wrong start but, even with the deluge having gone from biblical to stable, the Red Roses couldn’t make their overwhelming territorial advantage pay until the Wallaroos were reduced to 14 players by a yellow card for their skipper Shannon Parry.
Having done well to hold on to a couple of short-range surges, the depleted Aussies were unable to prevent Packer being sent off for another English trademark. All well and within existing laws, of course, but we’re getting to the point where the game’s guardians will probably have to act to restore some semblance of balance to how teams operate in the opposing 22.
The simple expedient of giving the service to the defending team if their opponents choose to take a corner would encourage more imagination and potentially fewer headers from close range, although it could also lead to more shots on goal or extra scrums. . The prevailing trend, in any case, is getting out of hand and doing little to encourage neutral interest in the game.
For now, though, England can go ahead and play to their great strength. Packer is as good as anyone from a couple of metres, but there was also plenty to admire about the full-back’s second try, a fine inside pass from Zoe Harrison sending her team-mate on an unstoppable burst into the line The only shame, with the weather drying up, was that there wasn’t a bit more of this incision, unless England deliberately keep their powder dry and decline to show all their cards early.
They have enough firepower for that to be the case, but only late on, with Australia tiring and the rain having stopped, did they exert the kind of relentless control they would ideally have wanted. There is a lingering feeling that on dry days against good opposition, not playing into the hands of expansive opponents like New Zealand, they will need to be a bit sharper, both in their execution and the pace at which they play.
Perhaps picking them and seeing the tireless Ward, the consistent Alex Matthews and the towering Packer cross for more driven maul scores, it is clear that their future opponents will first need to stop England at the origin to deny – their first World Cup since 2014. If the Red Roses keep going as they have been, they will probably still come out victorious. Kick it up another gear or two, though, and no one will come close.
England insist they have no plans to change their forward-dominated game plan after setting up a World Cup semi-final against Canada. All seven of their tries against the Wallaroos came from their tough pack and skipper Sarah Hunter and head coach Simon Middleton are adamant their side’s Route 1 approach offers the best chance of overall dominance.
No team in the tournament so far has been able to cope with England’s driving maul game. “There’s been a lot of talk about the driving maul and how we’re scoring tries, but ultimately nobody’s going to look back and say, ‘Oh, how did England score?’ said Hunter, now her country’s most capped player in rugby history.
“They look at the result and, if it’s not broken, you don’t need to fix it. I don’t think there’s any concern in ourselves about how we want to play or what we’re doing right now. If it doesn’t work, we know we have other things to go to.”
Middleton, likewise, believes England have nothing to apologize for and no need to copy New Zealand, whose backs looked extremely sharp in their quarter-final win over Wales. “It takes everything,” stressed Middleton, whose team has won 29 tests on the trot. “Rugby should not be game, game, game and change, change, change. This is Southern Hemisphere rugby, fantastic. We are a side of the northern hemisphere. We are very good at what we do, they are very good at what they do. You play to your strengths and I don’t really take credit for the criticism.
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“Does it frustrate me? Probably a little. It baffles me a bit. You cut your clothes accordingly. We are multi-faceted. Against Fiji and South Africa we played as good rugby as anyone. We changed the ball and scored big tries.”
Middleton also highlighted that England had played the ideal match for the wet conditions against Australia. “The forwards knew what kind of game it was going to be. They put their heads into it and delivered. I think they got into our 22 for about 30 seconds.”
Now, with the Black Ferns set to face France, he argues that the host nation should be seen as tournament favourites. “They’re red, aren’t they?” he said “They are on their own land, they have overthrown everyone. Everyone labels us favourites, but they’re not doing anything we’re not doing and they have home advantage. They have to be favorites for the competition.”
England: Rowland; Thompson, Scarratt (Aitchison, 69), Heard, Dow; Harrison (Kildunne, 66), Infant (L Packer, 61); Cornborough (Botterman, 53), Cokayne (Davies, 53), Bern (Muir, 53), Aldcroft, Ward (Galligan, 66), Matthews, M Packer, Hunter (cap; P Cleall, 53).
Tries: Hunter, Cokayne, Packer 3, Ward, Matthews. Against: Scarratt 2, Rowland.
Sin-bin: Aldcroft 15.
Australia: Pilae-Rasabale, Terita, Friedrichs (Smith, 67), Williams, Cramer (Murphy, 61); McKenzie, Morgan (Batibasaga, 61), Patu (Robinson, 50), Talakai (Naden, 66), O’Gorman (Karpani, 50), Leonard (Naiqama, 55), Kemp, Chancellor (Duck, 66), Parry ( 50). capt), Hamilton.
Test: chancellor.
Sin-bin: Parry 28.
Referee: M Cogger-Orr (New Zealand).