England fumble trump card to offer hope to rivals

The television cameras were spoilt for choice.

During injury hold-ups and TMO deliberations – and there were plenty – they could swivel into the stands to pick out a variety of famous faces.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, sitting between Red Roses Zoe Aldcroft and Marlie Packer, joined in a Mexican Wave.

England hooker Jamie George, who has previously trained with his women's counterparts, chatted away with former wing and ever-present pundit Ugo Monye.

The Rugby Football Union's Bill Sweeney, who survived an attempt to oust him from his chief executive post earlier this year, enjoyed an afternoon in the comfy seats.

But the most telling cut-aways came in the 21st and 27th minutes.

The first shot featured a grim-faced John Mitchell. The England coach had just watched England finally fire up their driving maul, shove Australia into reverse and plough over the line.

Only for hooker Amy Cokayne to spill forward as she attempted to ground the ball.

When the camera panned to his Australia counterpart Jo Yapp shortly after, they caught her quick grin.

Australia scrum-half Samantha Wood had just rifled a superb 50:22 into England's red zone.

The Wallaroos were ahead 7-5 on the scoreboard at that point. The danger of them being edged out of the quarter-finals by the United States was receding fast. The odds on an outrageous upset were also coming in.

Australia and Yapp didn't hit that jackpot in the end.

England ended up 40-point winners. They claimed their 30th straight victory. They made the last eight and are three matches from the giddiest glory.

Mitchell's side came up with the right numbers but the coach will mark them down for failing to show their best in their working.

After a 92-3 hammering of Samoa, England were unsettled by Australia's intensity and refusal to roll over.

The Wallaroos came with brain as well as brawn, poking holes with kicks in behind England's defence.

They found space, bought territory and unsettled the hosts' back three.

Canada, New Zealand and France, never mind England's last-eight opponents Scotland, will have taken note.

Under pressure, England went to their trump card.

No-one in women's rugby can pull the same front-door forward grunt and a set-piece drilled as tight as a military marching band out of the bag.

It is a lethal and reliable weapon. Usually.

In the first 30 minutes, it was worryingly scattergun.

Line-outs went astray, mauls were jammed up and disrupted, the continuity wouldn't come.

After grinding through the gears, England found a way forward eventually but that early uncertainty against a team well short of the world's best – Australia are ranked seventh in the world and lost to Wales a few weeks ago - will bolster belief among stronger rivals.

But there were certainly positives.

England kept their opponents scoreless after the interval. It is their third successive second-half shut-out in the tournament, a feat no-one else has matched and an indication of the unrivalled depth in their squad.

Australia came into the match as the most efficient attacking side in the tournament, returning from each 22m entry with an average of 5.2 points in their first two games.

England kept them to just the one score, with Cokayne wedging herself under Eva Karpani to deny the Australia prop a try during Australia's early period of ascendancy.

Mitchell chose, publicly at least, to accentuate those after the match.

"It was good wasn't it?" he said. "We were a bit untidy in attack but I thought we were outstanding in defence. We really cut off their edges, shut them right out."

Some changes might be made for next weekend's quarter-final against Scotland. Star full-back Ellie Kildunne was replaced with concussion symptoms. A back spasm is little fun at scrum time and a problem Hannah Botterman will have to manage.

"You've just got to put the responsibility back on people," Mitchell added, hinting at consistency rather than change.

"They'll own it, they'll get it right. It's not about dropping people or throwing people out of the bus. At the end of the day, you trust your people and they've got to take ownership of their roles. But we're human, you don't always get it right."

From here on in, England can't afford to get it wrong.

They are into knockout rugby, with France their potential semi-final opponents and New Zealand or Canada looming in the 27 September showpiece if the world rankings play out.

"It's the first part of the tournament done, we're on to a new comp now," said Mitchell.

The scoreline may have flipped by the final whistle but the mood music in the two camps was the same as early on.

Yapp was flung into the air by her players while Mitchell's stony post-match delivery didn't match his upbeat words.

His team might be the best but they still need to be better.