Jess Breach, Claudia MacDonald and Amy Cokayne each scored two tries; England's next World Cup warm-up match is against Wales on September 14 before their Rugby World Cup campaign starts on October 8 against Fiji in New Zealand
Saturday 3 September 2022 18:04, UK
England Women secured their 24th win a row with a 52-14 victory over the USA, as Simon Middleton's Red Roses continued their preparations for next month's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
England scored five tries in the first 40 minutes with Jess Breach grabbing a first-half double. They left further tries out there but still held a commanding 33-0 half-time lead.
The USA's only real chance of note came with the time in red when fly-half Gabby Cantorna missed a penalty attempt.
Second tries for Claudia MacDonald and Amy Cokayne helped England enhance their tally to 45 points without reply, before Hope Rogers powered over for the USA from close range.
The final 10 minutes of the match saw England go down to 13 players after yellow cards for Shaunagh Brown (high tackle) and Helena Rowland (deliberate knock-on).
Ellie Kildunne completed England's try-scoring with seven minutes to go and the team will now turn their attentions to their next World Cup warm-up match against Wales on September 14.
"We've had a huge pre-season behind us, and we haven't played rugby for a while," player-of-the-match MacDonald told ITV4. "We expected to come out and make mistakes and exactly that's what we did do.
"We showed some brilliant stuff and then some bits that we needed to tidy up and go away and work on. That's what we'll do now, we'll work on being more clinical and we probably gave away a few penalties that we didn't want to."
England's Red Roses have extremely high standards for themselves which is why both their player of the match and captain were critical of their 80 minutes of work.
Skipper Emily Scarratt described the team as "perfectionists" following the match and, despite a 38-point winning margin, there will be a stern match review ahead of their next outing against Wales.
England are the No 1 team in the world and have not lost at home since November 2016. From the early moments in Exeter, the Red Roses made it clear that a defeat was never going to be on the cards.
Scrum-half Natasha 'Mo' Hunt opened the scoring after four minutes with Poppy Cleall's through-the-legs pass showcasing their confidence.
Speedster Breach quickly added her first try of the day a couple of minutes later, reading the USA's play like a book and then putting her foot on the gas for a 60-metre sprint home.
As the first quarter continued, the USA's handling let them down as England pressured their every move.
Hunt almost had a second try before the quarter was out, but could not cling onto a pass from her captain with the line in sight.
England's driving maul is something they pride themselves on and the 10,907 strong crowd got their first real look at it just past the 20-minute mark. Cokayne found her player at the lineout and then joined the surge forwards, before finishing the job herself with the grounding.
Scarratt's boot remained on song for the conversion, as it would do for MacDonald's run in out wide and Breach's second try, which brought about England's 33-0 half-time lead.
MacDonald, who thought she would not be able to play rugby again following a neck injury last year, commenced the try-scoring in the second half. She was set up by Scarratt's missed pass and England's driving maul returned to deliver their seventh try of the day.
As the match moved into its final quarter, the USA grew in stature while England were not as fluid or clean as they had been.
Rogers' power rewarded the Eagles with a five-pointer, off the back of another superb drive forwards from the unrelenting Alev Kelter. England would then go down to 13 players as a result of yellow cards.
Brown's high tackle on Kate Zackary looked as if it was going to be given a red card, before the referee deemed it to be a 'low degree of danger'. Then, Rowland's instinctive reach out for the ball formed a deliberate knock-on and handed the USA a straight seven points with a penalty try.
Ahead of the match, England's head coach Simon Middleton said he has 50-50 calls to make for the World Cup and with the stakes being so high, Rowland left the field in tears.
England's immediate response to their second yellow card was to score their final try of the afternoon.
The vision of Zoe Harrison meant that Kildunne was able to pounce on her chip through and the team saw the match out from there.
