London (AFP) – Jess Breach scored a hat-trick as tournament hosts England continued their quest for Women’s Rugby World Cup glory with a colossal 92-3 thrashing of Samoa on Saturday. A fixture between a fully professional England side, who have not lost since the Covid-delayed 2022 final against New Zealand, and an amateur Samoa team was always likely to produce a lopsided result. The anticipated hammering duly took place in Northampton, with event favourites England running in 14 tries, including Breach’s treble, despite the wet conditions at Franklin’s Gardens.
This Pool A result saw England surpass both their previous highest score in a World Cup game, achieved in an 84-19 win over Fiji three years ago. It was the biggest margin of victory at the tournament. Helena Rowland’s individual match haul of 27 points was the most in the Red Roses’ history. Such is England’s strength in depth that victory was achieved despite coach John Mitchell making 13 changes to the starting 15 that hammered the United States 69-7 in last week’s tournament opener. England’s place in the quarter-finals will be confirmed with a game to spare should Australia beat the United States later Saturday.
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“I am very pleased; the conditions weren’t in our favour and we adapted to that,” Rowland, drafted in at fly-half in place of Zoe Harrison, told the BBC. “We played some good rugby. With a squad that had so many changes, it felt really cohesive.” Samoa, beaten 73-0 by Australia in their opening Pool game, at least avoided being ‘nilled’ two weeks in a row thanks to Harmony Vatau’s 44th-minute penalty. “I wanted us to tap and go (from the penalty), but we talked about getting some points which we did and we avoided that zero,” said Samoa coach Ramsey Tomokino. “We need more rugby in Samoa; we need to be part of a professional competition, that would help us. Our players are spread out around the world.”
Earlier, title-contenders Canada reached the last eight by hammering Wales with a 42-0 victory in Salford to follow their opening 65-7 walloping of Fiji. Wales made an encouraging start against Canada, ranked second in the world, but were still 28-0 behind just after half an hour, thanks to McKinley Hunt’s two tries and one each for Alysha Corrigan and Asia Hogan-Rochester. Taylor Perry and Brittany Kassil crossed Wales’ try-line after half-time, when Georgia Evans was yellow-carded and Sophie de Goede converted all six tries.
“I think we were very dominant in the set-piece; it was amazing to watch our girls dominate the scrums, and the line-out was still strong for us,” said Canada captain Alex Tessier. Wales coach Sean Lynn added, “The big thing for me was that in the last 15, 20 minutes there was a glimpse of what I want to see—being brave, moving the ball and getting individuals with the ball in hand.”
Elsewhere in Pool B, Scotland also reached the quarter-finals with a 29-15 win over Fiji—the narrowest margin of victory in this tournament so far—that built on their 38-8 victory over Wales. The Welsh are now condemned to an early exit. Francesca McGhie opened the scoring with a second-minute try after taking just 55 seconds to break the deadlock against Wales. Rhona Lloyd added two more tries to put Scotland 17-5 ahead at the break, but Manuqalo Komaitai’s score after the restart gave Fiji hope. McGhie’s fifth try of the tournament and Emma Orr’s superb solo effort put the result beyond doubt prior to Karalaini Naisewa’s consolation score for Fiji.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a really long time, after what we’ve been through on and off the pitch,” said Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm. “I don’t think we’ve been in a World Cup quarter-final for 24 years, so it’s nice to create a bit of history.”
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