England head coach Simon Middleton has shuffled his deck for Sunday morning’s final World Cup pool game against South Africa in Auckland — but it was not a case of pressing the panic button or being short of aces.
The Red Roses XV shows 13 changes from the one which started in the 13-7 win over France in Whangarei last week, when Middleton admitted they got a reality check.
Saracens flanker Marlie Packer, who captains the side for the first time in her 86th international appearance, and fly-half Zoe Harrison are the only survivors from that game, which ensured England made it through to next week’s quarter-finals.
Squad captain Sarah Hunter is rested and veteran centre Emily Scarratt is on a powerful bench which boasts 403 caps and is a handy back-up if things are not going to plan.
Only two of the 32-player squad, Shaunagh Brown and Laura Keates, will not have had a taste of tournament action by the end of a match which will help determine England’s seeding for the last eight, so this is part of a longer game from Middleton as the tournament heads towards the knockout stages.
“When we got the second win, you could feel there were so many players ready to play and working so hard,” said Middleton. “There is also a vibe that the other players, from the first two games, want the other players to play and have a World Cup experience. Nothing beats playing and you want everyone to have that experience. We looked at it and thought the first thing was we needed a side to get the job done — and this side can do that.”
England are currently third in the seedings list and, although it is unlikely they will overtake New Zealand, who face Scotland in Pool A tomorrow, second-placed Canada, who take on the USA on Sunday, are in England’s sights.
That would probably mean a bonus-point win against a South African side who are ranked 13th in the world and went down 21-17 to a novice Fiji side last weekend and 40-5 to the French in their first game.
If Sunday’s match follows the form book, England should cruise home, having put 84 points past the Fijians in their opening Pool C match. For context, the bookmakers have Middleton’s side as 60-point favourites.
To justify that position they have to be far more precise in attack than they were against France. England had 70 per cent possession, forced the French into making 227 tackles but only had Scarratt’s try and eight points from her boot to show for it.
With bigger challenges to come, Middleton knows they will have to convert their big numbers in the statistics columns into big numbers on the scoreboard. “We dominated field possession [against France], we dominated possession, we just didn’t finish off,” added Middleton. “We got held up over the line twice. We have talked about being more clinical as a group. We have got to take our chances.
“France spent 13 seconds in our 22, we spent 30 minutes in theirs. We never thought we were going to lose that game. That was a huge game, with the way it had been billed for the last couple of years since the pool draw, and we were more than happy to come away with a win.”
In the other games featuring big hitters, France play Fiji, Australia take on Wales and an improving Italy side face Japan. If the rankings stay as they are, England would face Australia, who put the frighteners on New Zealand in the first weekend, in the quarter-finals — but things could look very different by Sunday.
