Hunter driven on by women’s hour

REPORTS ENGLAND will attempt to ride the crest of a wave of a summer of sporting success for women’s sport in this country when they shoot for a place in the Rugby World Cup final tonight.

Sarah Hunter’s side line up against France in the semi-final in Belfast aiming to emulate the England women’s cricket team’s triumph against India at Lord’s last month.

The England No8 revealed yesterday that they – and England’s women footballers – have been an inspiration on their run so far.

“We were big followers of the women’s cricket when we were in camp in England. When we had down time, we would find a laptop and crowd around and watch it,” said Hunter.

“A few of us went to the games, and we were certainly supporting them all the way through. It was fantastic.

“It is something we want to carry on and build on the success of English women’s sport. The footballers did really well out at the Euros, and we hope we can be a part of that for this summer.”

If Hunter’s side can overcome the in-form French they will go one step further than the footballers, who lost to hosts Holland in the semi-final, and Johanna Konta, who also reached the last four at Wimbledon.

Having reached the last four World Cup finals and beaten France in this year’s Six Nations they start as favourites, although they did lose to the same opponents in last year’s championship.

That result should remove any chance of complacency and Hunter is demanding a raise in performance levels from the group stages, when they saw off Italy, Spain and the USA to top Pool B.

“France have been very impressive. They came to the World Cup in great form and have done exactly what we’ve done – won all three pool games and reached the semifinals. We know we have to be better than we have been,” said Hunter.

“The French have always had a very strong pack, and they have certainly come to the party at this World Cup. It is going to be exciting to be part of it, and hopefully we can live up to that and produce a good performance.”

England make two changes for the game, Lydia Thompson coming in on the wing and Rachael Burford joining Emily Scarratt in the midfield.

France have suffered a major blow after losing their best player, Romane Menager, which has forced them to reshuffle their back row.

Yet Scarratt, who has scored four of England’s 27 tries in the tournament so far, still anticipates a much tighter contest in the semi-final.

She said: “Knockout games are always tough. France are going to pose challenging

ENGLAND:

Waterman; Thompson, Scarratt, Burford, Wilson: Mclean, Hunt; Cornborough, Cokayne, Bern, Scott, Taylor, Matthews, Packer, Hunter. Replacements: Fleetwood, Clark, Lucas, Millar-Mills, Noel-Smith, Mason, Reed, Jones.

Amedee; Guiglion, Ladagnous, Poublan, Izar; Drouin, Rivoalen; Deshayes, Mignot, Duval, Corson, Forlani, Mayans, Annery, Diaye. Replacements: Thomas, Arricastre, Carricaburu, Andre, Diallo, Le Pesq, Neisen, Pelle.

7.45pm. TV: ITV4.

FRANCE: KICK-OFF:

questions but we’ve just got to stick to what we want to do and how we’re going to impose ourselves on the game.

“We know they’ve gone well so far and are looking like a different side than they were in the Six Nations.

“I don’t think France ever go under the radar, they’ve always had some amazing players, and they’re pulling it together in this tournament.

“But we’ve come up against very different challenges across all three of the games and the teams have posed different questions and we’ve been able to answer those in the most part.”