NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Lights, camera, action. The 2025 Rugby World Cup is under way and England more than lived up to the hype with a dominant display against the USA, which has underlined their favourites’ tag for the World Cup crown. The prop Hannah Botterman and the centre Megan Jones were standouts in a good team display, and the scary thought for their future opponents is that England were far from their best.
Handling errors were at the heart of their sloppiness but they were commanding at scrum time, which got them out of jail on a few occasions. When their attack did click nothing could stop them, the best try of the 11 coming with Botterman’s clever line run in the first half.
Before a ball was thrown, the city of Sunderland had been buzzing all day in the buildup. Heading to the stadium there were USA fans in hot dog outfits, while England supporters donned scarves and cowboy hats. The hats are becoming synonymous with the Red Roses thanks to Ellie Kildunne’s and Jones’s try celebration that the fans, who broke the record for a women’s Rugby World Cup opening game with 42,573 in the stands, had to wait until the 35th minute to see, when Kildunne scored her first try.
There was a showbiz start with the opening ceremony, including the pop star Anne-Marie, but it was clear who the rugby superstar was with a huge cheer for Ilona Maher, the USA outside centre and the most followed rugby player on social media, when the teams were announced, but England’s Kildunne also registered deafening applause.
It was a cagey opening few minutes with both teams’ first attacks thwarted, and on the Red Roses’ second attempt they coughed up possession for a USA scrum.
However, England won a scrum penalty with the first set-piece punch thrown by the hosts. A simple catch and drive was what most anticipated from the resulting lineup, and that is exactly what supporters got with the openside flanker Sadia Kabeya the first try-scorer of this World Cup.
The next try was a piece of rugby brilliance. Jones picked a crossfield kick, which Dow managed to recover and recycle, Botterman ran an expert line to splice the defence open and the huge roar from the prop that followed showed what it meant.
With England now in the driving seat, every small win the USA gained, if it was disrupting a lineout or winning a breakdown penalty, they celebrated wildly.
Maher had said in a pre-match conference that the USA can be their “own worst enemies” at times and that was definitely the case in this Pool A match.
Miscommunication between the USA captain, Kate Zackary, and the wing Bulou Mataitoga led to a sure try being fumbled, but a piece of individual skill by Erica Jarrell shortly afterwards put the USA on the board, and the fly-half McKenzie Hawkins’s conversion counted but she cut it close with the hooter from the countdown sounding just after her kick attempt.
The USA then took another hit with Alev Kelter sent to the sin bin for cynical play for hitting the ball out of Natasha “Mo” Hunt’s hands at a ruck.
England took advantage of being a player up after Maud Muir powered over the line despite resolute defence from the USA.
The stadium came to life next with supporters on their feet as Dow broke down the right before feeding back inside to Kildunne.
England were cooking and not only in attack as they held up a try at the other end of the pitch just before half-time.
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The momentum was firmly England’s but it seemed the Red Roses wanted more from their performance with the leadership group, including the captain, Zoe Aldcroft, and vice-captain, Hunt, remaining on the pitch for a few minutes before heading into the changing room.
Dow found the try line to open the second-half scores with a Jones chargedown resulting in an excellent finish from Kildunne a few phases later.
The USA could not get a look in with Botterman coming up with a breakdown penalty that then resulted in the hooker Amy Cokayne crashing over. Aptly, the song played in celebration was Just Can’t Get Enough by Depeche Mode, and the Red Roses really couldn’t, with the wing Jess Breach the next player over the line.
England continued to press on relentlessly, with the replacement hooker Lark Atkin-Davies going over, and then Emily Scarratt entered the pitch for her fifth Rugby World Cup, becoming the first England player to reach that milestone.
Scarratt, who won the World Cup in 2014 and made her first appearance at the tournament in the home 2010 competition, took over kicking duties after replacing Zoe Harrison, but missed her kick when Breach crashed over for her second try.
The scoring was rounded off by Atkin-Davies in what was the Red Roses’ 28th consecutive win.
England’s winning machine is moving, and it already looks deadly in the pursuit of a trophy they have not won since 2014.
Next up for England is Samoa, while the USA face Australia in what is now a must-win game in their own Rugby World Cup campaign.
