Georgia Roche replaces Jenna Foubister at half-back for England women, with Hope Millard stepping up to the bench for their must-win final group game.<\/p>\n
England have to beat Samoa to finish second in Group A and qualify for the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
They beat Wales 70-6 in their opener, but were thrashed 78-0 by reigning champions Australia in Perth last weekend.<\/p>\n
Foubister, 19, started against Australia after a superb domestic season where she was named Super League Woman of Steel.<\/p>\n
But she struggled against the strength of Australia, so coach Stu Barrow has opted for the experience of Roche instead.<\/p>\n
The loss of key player Eva Hunter to a leg injury suffered against the Jillaroos has prompted a pack reshuffle, with Hollie-Mae Dodd moving from prop to the back row.<\/p>\n
Mary Coleman comes in at prop as a result, while England are boosted by captain Jodie Cunningham overcoming an ear injury suffered last week to be named on the bench.<\/p>\n
Georgia Wilson is in for Molly Jones in the centres, while Millard – the only heritage player left in the England set-up following Jasmin Strange’s tournament-ending knee injury – is back in the squad.<\/p>\n
A win would earn England a semi-final spot, where they would most likely face New Zealand, who beat them in the last four of the previous World Cup in 2022.<\/p>\n
England women: Fran Goldthorp, Anna Davies, Georgia Wilson, Connie Boyd, Amelia Brown, Izzy Rowe, Georgia Roche, Mary Coleman, Keara Bennett, Liv Wood, Lucy Murray, Hollie-Mae Dodd, Megan Williams.<\/p>\n
Interchange: Jodie Cunningham, Vicky Whitfield, Hope Millard, Lucie Sams.<\/p>\n
Reserves: Ruby Bruce, Evie Cousins, Molly Jones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia Roche replaces Jenna Foubister at half-back for England women, with Hope Millard stepping up to the bench…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-642879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}