(Reuters) – England captain Sarah Hunter has warned opposition defences that her side has no intention of altering their highly effective use of the rolling maul after booking their place in the semi-finals of the women’s Rugby World Cup on Sunday.
The Simon Middleton-coached Red Roses handed Australia a 41-5 defeat in Auckland to set up a last four meeting with Canada next Saturday, with England’s forwards to the fore as they have been throughout the tournament in New Zealand.
The English, who notched up a record 29th consecutive win with the victory over Australia, have used their dominance at line-outs and a catch-and-drive approach as their chief weapon as they have overrun all of their World Cup opponents so far.
“We’ve worked on it over the years and we’ve kept building and tidying it up, and especially as a forward in terms of how dominant it can be,” said England captain Hunter, who won a record 138th international cap on Sunday.
“Teams are going to look at ways to stop that, and it’s fine, we’ll find ways around that but at the minute it’s working so we’ll stick to that.”
All seven of England’s tries in the rain-affected clash at Waitakere Stadium on Sunday were scored by their forward line, with Marlie Packer claiming a hat-trick in a dominant individual performance.
But while much of the focus has been on the pack, Hunter stressed the English have enough talent elsewhere in the team to be able to punish opponents regardless of the performance of their forward line.
“We’ve got great backs that can finish tries as well so we’ve got that variation that we put on at the right moment,” she said.
“Today was a wet weather game so we tried to go straight through the heart of them.”
(Reporting by Michael Church in Hong Kong; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
