England put in an accomplished performance to beat Canada in their Rugby League World Cup Group A showdown on Saturday afternoon.
With the Princess Of Wales in attendance for today’s double-header in Wigan, with the men taking on Papua New Guinea in the quarter-finals straight after, England turned up the heat against their North American opponents and ran out thoroughly convincing 54-4 winners at the DW Stadium.
Craig Richards’ side had the best possible start and were on the scoreboard inside the first minute thanks to Leah Burke, who went over in the corner after a handling error gave the hosts the ball almost immediately from the opening whistle.
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Hollie-Mae Dodd was next on the scoresheet, the former ballroom dancer showing some serious twinkle toes to outwit the Canadian defence and get over the line. Tara Jane Stanley, whose kicking was suspect on Tuesday, took a while to get going today, failing to convert her opening two efforts.
Despite sticking 72 past Brazil in their opening fixture, it was always expected to be a tougher test against the 2017 semi-finalists, who had left Papua New Guinea sweating for large portions of the first half of their first fixture. However, the floodgates had opened and England looked deadly every time they broke forward, with the opposition rarely getting a sniff.
Courtney Winfield-Hill picked out Stanley with a kick, who offloaded to Georgia Wilson to touch down in the corner to make it three tries in 20 minutes. This time Stanley converted successfully to bring the scores to 14-0.
England had their tails up and Dodd capitalised off a knock on from Karina Gauto and spotted a gap to get her second of the afternoon, with Stanley once again converting.
The Raven’s misery was compounded when Francesca Goldthorp cut down through the middle like a knife through hot butter for a superb try. Georgia Roche was next up, throwing a couple of dummies to skip past the Canadian defence and race over for another yet England try. Stanley landed the conversion to give her side a 30-0 lead going into the break.
Having scored in under a minute in the first half, England incredibly did the same again after the break thanks to some stunning work from Vicky Whitfield, steamrolling through the Canadian backline with a 30 metre run to put England on the front foot. Stanley was there to get over the line and backed it up by converting the following kick too.
A stunning start for England and, in particular Stanley, continued with the reigning Woman of Steel bagging her second try in quick succession, keeping Maddy Aberg and Petra Woods at bay to go over again.
Canada finally got themselves up and running in the 47th minute courtesy of Woods, although they failed to convert their kick and reduce the scoreline further.
Unfortunately for the away side, normal service resumed soon after through St Helens centre Carrie Roberts for her first try of the tournament England’s ninth of the afternoon. Stanley had her second-half hat-trick sealed on the hour mark and, with her fifth conversion from ten attempts, brought England up to the 50-point mark for the afternoon.
Six minutes later Burke had her second try of the match, latching on to an inch-perfect kick from Winfield-Hill to wrestle herself over at the corner and wrap up the scoreline at 54-4, with Stanley unable to convert.
It has been back-to-back strong performances from England, who lead Group A and now look like shoo-ins for the semi-finals.
*18+ | BeGambleAware
