England Women thump USA for 24th straight win in World Cup warm-up

England’s World Cup preparations continued with a scrappy 52-14 victory over the USA Eagles which made the Red Roses the first tier-one nation to win 24 games in a row – a blistering statistic to have five weeks out from the tournament in New Zealand. The stat will add to England’s tag of being favourites to win the trophy.

Simon Middleton said he was using the USA game as a “discovery match” for the World Cup squad selection, released on 20 September. The match-day 23 largely had impressive performances, giving Middleton a good problem when it comes to cutting the squad to 32.

The match began with sustained USA pressure but Ellie Kildunne ripped the ball to give England a foothold. A Red Roses five metre scrum followed not long after and England dominated with scrum-half Natasha Hunt peeling away and crashing over. It was not long until the Sandy Park crowd were on their feet again as Jess Breach intercepted the ball and, in a moment of individual brilliance, ran 60 metres to score.

The USA had a few attacking spells but it ended with Alev Kelter holding on at the breakdown and Zoe Harrison cleared the Red Roses lines. England came to life off the back of the lineout, Emily Scarratt found herself in acres of space and offloaded to Hunt but the captain spilled the ball just inches from the line. If the scrum-half had looked to her left, Breach was in for a walk-in score.

England continued to hammer the line in search of their third try and thought they had it but after a lengthy TMO check it was ruled no try. USA’s Hallie Taufo’ou did receive her marching orders to the bin and the Red Roses took full advantage of being a player up with the hooker Amy Cokayne crashing over.

The scores kept coming for England. It was a