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England sink Wallaroos in rainy World Cup quarter-final

Sarah Hunter secures the line out for England. Photo by MICHAEL BRADLEY/AFP via Getty Images

Jay Tregonning’s Wallaroos side are heading home from New Zealand after a 41-5 World Cup quarter-final humbling by England.

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Tournament favourites England have washed away Australia’s World Cup hopes with a 41-5 win in their quarter-final in Auckland.

In driving rain at Waitakere Stadium, England’s class and strength prevailed over an ill-disciplined and fumbly Australia.

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Milestone woman Sarah Hunter ensured the Red Roses led from the eighth minute, before Marlie Packer scored two first-half tries to give England a scoreboard buffer.

Jay Tregonning’s side never seriously challenged, struggling at line-outs and to maintain possession in the big wet.

One statistic told the story – Australia spent just 25 seconds in the English 22.

A stunning Emily Chancellor try in the shadow of halftime gave the Wallaroos a glimmer of hope, but the English put on four unanswered second-half tries to surge into the semi-finals.

Captain Shannon Parry said she was proud of her side but the Red Roses deserved their win.

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“England are a world class team. They’re a well oiled machine,” she said.

The odds were against Australia from the outset.

England had never failed to reach a World Cup semi and came into the knockout rounds on a three-year winning streak.

The Wallaroos’ forward pack needed to stand up to the mighty England scrum to have a shot, but they failed their first test to allow Hunter an opening try. It was a fitting reward for the living legend who became rugby’s most capped woman on Saturday, playing her 138th Test.

A yellow card to reigning world player of the year Zoe Aldcroft for a head clash gave the Wallaroos a look in, however Lori Cramer missed a penalty in their only chance for points with an advantage.

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Soon after parity was restored, Parry was sent to the bin for an offside after a string of warnings from the referee.

After missing a pair of tries in marginal TMO rulings, England’s Packer went in twice while a woman up.

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Australia were woeful at the lineout, losing six of their first eight, before Chancellor shocked England to finish a sweeping move with a stampeding run.

Any momentum Australia might have had going into the break was swept away by Abbie Ward’s 44th-minute try.

Emily Scarratt missed the conversion, going at two from six on a horror day for kicking.

Hooker Amy Cokayne then went over in the 53rd minute to wild celebrations, and Alex Matthews followed in the 62nd.

Putting an exclamation point on their performance, Packer sealed her hat-trick in the last minute after a trademark lineout push.

The result means Australia head home with a 2-2 record in New Zealand, losing to England and the hosts, but beating Scotland and Wales.

With their world record-lengthening 29th straight Test win, England join New Zealand and France in the last four.

On Saturday, New Zealand crushed Wales 55-3 and France defeated Italy 39-3, and the pair will play next Saturday at Eden Park for a place in the World Cup final.

England will meet the winner of the last quarter-final, between Canada and the United States, played later on Sunday.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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