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Louise Thomas
Editor
For some they are finishers, others have gone with game changers but now England’s Red Roses are calling on their “Super Eight” to make the difference at the end of games.
Having struggled to maintain the momentum of their starters in two warm-up wins over France and New Zealand, England’s replacements hit their groove in a 61-21 win over the USA, to kick off the defence of their WXV 1 crown with maximum points.
Next up is a meeting with the Black Ferns, who were shocked by Ireland in their opening encounter and will be looking to bounce back against an English side who they last beat in the World Cup final two years ago.
Amy Cokayne scored a hat-trick that day and has been part of the Super Eight in recent games – so was understandably happy to have met coach John Mitchell’s demands of his replacements.
She said: “We always talk about the Super Eight coming on and finishing strong. Mitch has been quite disappointed that in the two warm-up games, when the Super Eight come on, there has only been one try scored. So, he laid down a marker for us in the USA game that he wanted us to come on and score some tries. Luckily, we did that, so we can tick that off his list.
“At Twickenham [in a 24-12 win over the Black Ferns], we were disappointed that we let them score. When we look back, the tries they scored were quite soft. So hopefully we can fix those areas where they took advantage. We want to put our game that we are trying to build to light on a big stage and against a big team.”
While England eventually found their rhythm against the USA, they committed some uncharacteristic handling errors during a stop-start encounter.
Cokayne attributed that to the way the Americans put pressure on the Red Roses but knows that England will need to step it up against a Black Ferns team that has made a point of increasing their physicality since losing to the Red Roses in WXV 1 last year on home soil.
Cokayne added: “The way we want to play is a bit more expansive, so we are going to make errors. Now it is about dialling into what is workable and what that looks like.
“The joy of being a Red Rose is that everyone brings their A game every time we play them. Fair play to America, they played well and put us under pressure at times.
“New Zealand is in a similar position to us; everyone brings their A game for them. (Ireland’s win) just shows that if you are one or two per cent off your game, then people will take advantage.
“With New Zealand, it is always going to be a physical encounter. There were definitely a few sore bodies after the game at Twickenham.
“They play such an expansive game and like to have ball in hand. If we can implement the way we want to attack them and make them play not the way they want to play, that is what we need to do. I think it will be a highly competitive fixture.”
