England centre Tatyana Heard takes on Scotland's defenders in their World Cup quarter-final. Photo: AFP
England have battered neighbours Scotland to keep their Women's World Cup juggernaut rolling on, running in six tries in a lopsided 40-8 victory on Sunday to reach the semi-finals and set a new world record for consecutive test wins.
Kelsey Clifford went over twice while further tries for Morwenna Talling, Abby Dow, Amy Cokayne and Holly Aitchison at Bristol's Ashton Gate stadium wrapped up a 31st straight win for England and teed up a semi-final with old rivals France.
The tournament hosts, who are unbeaten since their last world record run of 30 wins was ended by New Zealand in the 2022 final, laid down another emphatic marker to their rivals, crossing four times in the first half and then cruising through the remainder of the contest.
Five Aitchison conversions took her points tally for the afternoon to 15 while Scotland's only dents on the scoreboard came from Helen Nelson's early penalty and a desperately late try from Rhona Lloyd as their hopes of reaching their first semi-final were crushed.
England's dominance in this fixture was so emphatic that a Scotland victory was only possible in the wilder fringes of the imagination.
England were on a 27-match winning streak against their neighbours spanning 26 years with the average score in their last 10 meetings showing a near 50-point gap.
While some sporting scripts have to be torn up and rewritten, this one seemed as near to being carved in stone as you could get.
Yet for the briefest of moments it looked as though England could be in for at least a testing afternoon in a familiarly rain-sodden Bristol.
A spell of early Scotland pressure pegged England back on their line and while they could not force it over, Nelson's close-range penalty gave them a 3-0 lead.
If you can have a turning point after four minutes, that was it, however, as England did not take long to snatch the initiative.
Clifford spun out of a tackle and burrowed over the line in the 10th minute to put England ahead and when Talling charged onto the ball and bundled over to increase the lead five minutes later it felt decisive.
A Cokayne try was ruled out for an obstruction at the lineout but that was never likely to be significant.
Dow scored their third try, and her 50th for England, touching down in the right corner, and when a swift break ended with England working the ball inside for Clifford to bundle over for her second try, it was game over.
Aitchison's third conversion sent the tournament hosts in at the break leading 26-3 and the scoreboard continued to tick over after the interval with Cokayne breaking off from the maul to score England's fifth try and Aitchison finishing off a well-worked move to increase their lead to 40-3.
England then cruised to the finish line but could not see the game out without offering Scotland a consolation with Lloyd going over in the corner for their only try of the match well after the 80 minutes were up.
France fight back
France survived a scare to advance to a ninth Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final, coming from behind to edge Ireland 18-13 in a tense quarter-final at Sandy Park on Sunday.
Ireland had the wind behind them from kickoff and took advantage of the treacherous conditions to be 13-0 up at halftime but France fought back to score 18 unanswered second-half points and book a semi-final clash against either England or Scotland in Bristol next Saturday.
Charlotte Escudero led the comeback and, along with flying winger Joanna Grisez, went over for the French with flyhalf Morgane Bourgeois converting the first try and kicking over two penalties.
Linda Djougang and Stacey Flood were Ireland's try scorers with Dannah O'Brien adding a penalty after the wind foiled her two conversion attempts.
A tap penalty after six minutes saw Djougang power over for the first score of the match and, after the first of two French players was sent to the sinbin, Ireland took advantage of the numerical superiority to score a second try in the 24th minute.
French errors allowed Ireland to pile on the pressure and eventually get the ball out wide for fullback Flood to go over.
O'Brien put over a 38th-minute penalty to extend the Irish lead but resolute French defence kept Ireland from another first-half score, even though Ireland had 35 phases of attack in seven minutes of additional time but, despite continually barging at the line, were unable to forge a breakthrough.
France's first points came eight minutes into the second half as Bourgeois put over a penalty, followed 11 minutes later by a converted try from loose forward Escudero that reduced the Irish lead to three points with 20 minutes to play.
France went ahead in the 67th minute, courtesy of a steal metres from their own line as Ireland were attacking, swinging the ball out wide to Grisez, who outsprinted the Irish defenders and streaked some 60 metres upfield to score.
With five minutes left, Bourgeois kicked over a second penalty to put France five points ahead but they had to endure some anxious moments before securing victory as Ireland botched a lineout on the French line in the last minute.
Defeat for the Irish kept up their unwanted record of never having won a knockout game at either the men's or women's World Cup.
- Reuters
