England demolish Bok Women to set up Australia clash
England handed SA a 75-0 thrashing at Auckland’s Waitakere Stadium on Sunday as group play in the women’s Rugby World Cup concluded with the tournament favourites setting up a quarterfinal meeting with Australia next weekend.
England’s 13-try victory secured them third seeding behind defending champions New Zealand and Canada, who earlier defeated the US 29-14 to line up a last-eight meeting with their neighbours on Sunday.
Favourites England will take on the Australians for a place in the semifinals after topping Pool C while New Zealand face Wales on the other side of the draw.
Italy scraped home 21-8 in their final match against Japan to set up a quarterfinal against fourth-seed France, who they beat in their final warm-up match for the tournament.
England’s forwards were utterly dominant against a South African side that needed an unlikely win in the day’s final game to secure the last remaining quarterfinal berth ahead of Wales. Second-rower Rose Galligan and Connie Powell each scored a hat-trick of tries while Poppy Cleall and Sadia Kabeya crossed the line twice apiece.
Shaunagh Brown, Marlie Packer and Abby Dow also put their names on the scoresheet in a one-sided contest.
The win saw the English extend their record run of consecutive victories to 28, a sequence that extends back to 2019 when they lost against New Zealand.
SA head coach Stanley Raubenheimer blamed too many errors.
“I said we started off well but then we lost a bit of control of the ball, which gave them opportunities to kick for the corners and they scored seven maul tries. The fact that we couldn’t keep the ball for longer periods is something we can look back on and work on for the future,” Raubenheimer said. He said there were positives though SA lost all three matches at the tournament.
“Our goal was [to beat] Fiji, and we didn’t achieve that. So, from a results point of view, it was unsuccessful.
“But from a squad and team development point of view, we used to be a one-pass team but at least now we can make two or three passes.
“We are still not the finished article but we knew that coming here.
“Our set piece was good although today was a bit of a challenge, but we were playing the number one team in the world — a fully professional outfit versus a semi-professional outfit — and it showed.
“It showed clearly there is work to be done in that area but the effort is the thing that has made me most proud of today’s performance.”
SA captain Sindi Booi said the team needed to become more professional.
“We need to put everything in order so that we get more players, good players, through the system and make sure we train hard and we have a professional side where the players are getting enough training and knowledge about rugby.”