{"id":768635,"date":"2026-09-12T19:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768635\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:52:11","slug":"england-survive-sluggish-start-to-overwhelm-australia-in-second-half-womens-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768635\/","title":{"rendered":"England survive sluggish start to overwhelm Australia in second half | Women’s rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"

England had to execute something they have not had to do in John Mitchell\u2019s reign against Australia on Saturday, win after being down at half-time. It was the first time in almost six years the Red Roses had been trailing after the first 40. But whatever was said in the changing room shook the team to life as they scored 43 second-half points to keep their winning streak going.<\/p>\n

Australia gave the Red Roses quite the scare in the first half. The Wallaroos were not just clinical when in attack, but they were thorough and physical in defence to disrupt England\u2019s front-foot ball. The visitors played some of their best rugby since last year\u2019s World Cup, when they were knocked out in the quarter-finals, before falling apart in the second half. England were uncharacteristically poor at times with several knock-ons and other handling errors hampering their attack.<\/p>\n

This was the first game with the smaller ball. In WXV matches this autumn, teams are playing with a size 4.5 ball instead of the usual size five. World Rugby has introduced the trial to see if it has a positive impact after similar trials in youth competitions and in sevens. At a windy Salford, Australia dealt with the change better but the Wallaroos captain, Siokapesi Palu Sekona, said she and her teammates \u201chad already played with the ball in our Super [Rugby] season so we haven\u2019t had to adjust much\u201d.<\/p>\n

Abi Burton goes over to score England\u2019s first try. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The England captain, Meg Jones \u2013 who was sporting a black eye \u2013 said: \u201cI think we are fed up of speaking about it. I\u2019m a craftsman and I\u2019ll never blame my tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The England fly-half, Holly Aitchison, won her 50th cap less than 40 miles from her home town club of Firwood Waterloo. She led the team out and her teammates congratulated her as they lined up for the anthems. Just like the last time the two nations played, at last year\u2019s World Cup, Australia scored the first points with a penalty from Samantha Wood\u2019s boot.<\/p>\n

Australia then deployed ferocious defence but all of their good work looked to have been undone after Meg Jones appeared to score from a charged-down kick, however Tatyana Heard was offside.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Holly Aitchison (right) lines up a conversion while Mia Venner steadies the smaller ball in the wind. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A deliberate knock-on from Wood meant the visitors were down to 14 and while England were sloppy with the ball they went over through Abi Burton. The Wallaroos had a try ruled out before Faliki Pohiva scored and another impressive defensive set saw them hold a thoroughly deserved 10-5 half-time lead.<\/p>\n

England were sharper in the second half and showed their teeth in attack with a tirade of tries beginning with a score by May Campbell. Just as the scrum was the Red Roses\u2019 winning north star in the 2025 World Cup final and Women\u2019s Six Nations grand slam decider this year, it gave them much needed momentum \u2013 particularly after the front row was changed \u2013 and it generated a try for Jones. Credit must go to the captain too, with a bit of individual skill sealing the score.<\/p>\n

The Red Roses scoring tap was firmly on and the debutant Bryony Field, Mia Venner and Sadia Kabeya added tries. The replacement scrum-half, Lucy Packer, made an acrobatic finish and Claudia Moloney-MacDonald finished out the tries.<\/p>\n

Claudia Moloney-MacDonald goes over for the final of England\u2019s seven second half tries. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Australia were completely outplayed in the second half and their director of women\u2019s high performance, Tim Walsh, said even when his team are at their best \u201cwe are probably not good enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe will be, but that is where we are at,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have great players, which we need great environments for so they can be as physical as they can be. England are a fantastic team. They came with an 80-minute team, we are a 50-minute team. We will get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are going to win, we want to win [a home World Cup in 2029] so that is a good benchmark to work our way back from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The England head coach, John Mitchell, said his team are world No 1 because they are \u201cso harsh on themselves when standards drop\u201d.<\/p>\n

Captain Meg Jones scores England\u2019s third try. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The Red Roses will have to be much improved when they face their World Cup final opponents, Canada, next Saturday to keep their winning run, now 39 games, intact. For Australia, if they can produce the rugby they did in the first half against England for their entire match against France they could come away with their first victory since March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England had to execute something they have not had to do in John Mitchell\u2019s reign against Australia on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}