{"id":366919,"date":"2025-08-23T09:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366919\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T09:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:46:21","slug":"england-make-statement-with-dominant-opening-world-cup-win-over-united-states-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/366919\/","title":{"rendered":"England make statement with dominant opening World Cup win over United States \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Women\u2019s RWC Pool A: England 69 USA 7<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/england-rugby\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/england-rugby\">England<\/a> began their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rugby-world-cup\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rugby-world-cup\">World Cup<\/a> campaign in style after running in 11 tries to beat the United States 69-7 at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In front of a record-breaking crowd of 42,723, the number one ranked side in the world went ahead through Sadia Kabeya and Hannah Botterman, before Erica Jarrell-Searcy responded for the USA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After Alev Kelter was shown yellow, Maud Muir and Ellie Kildunne scored in quick succession for England to lead 28-7 at the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a ruthless second-half showing, the Red Roses went on to add a further seven tries as Abby Dow, Kildunne and Amy Cokayne all went over and Jess Breach and Lark Atkin-Davies each ran in braces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">England have now won 28 straight games and extended their winning run against the United States to 21 matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">John Mitchell named an unchanged starting line-up from England\u2019s pre-season win against France earlier this month, while 11 World Cup debutants were listed in the USA squad, including four in the starting 15.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A bright start for the hosts was rewarded in the ninth minute when England utilised the driving maul from a lineout and Kabeya crossed before Zoe Harrison slotted between the sticks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Although the United States gained some ground, the Red Roses soon stormed up the field and their next try stemmed from Megan Jones\u2019s neat grubber kick on to the right flank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dow then scooped the ball up and from the resulting ruck, Botterman was played in by Natasha Hunt to ground, with Harrison converting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The USA hit back in the 25th minute when a quick switch in play saw Jarrell-Searcy evade Hunt\u2019s tackle to charge down the pitch and score, with McKenzie Hawkins adding the extras.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, moments later they were reduced to 14 when Kelter was sent to the sin bin and England took advantage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Their troublesome maul was well-defended by the USA, who offered some stubborn resistance on their own tryline before Muir eventually went over, with Harrison converting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">England then struck only seconds after the restart when Dow broke down the right and offloaded into Kildunne, who flew over the line and Harrison\u2019s kick was successful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Only moments into the second half, the Red Roses piled on the pressure and after 15 phases on the tryline, a quick move to the right saw Dow cross in the corner three minutes in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Kildunne struck for a second time when Breach played a grubber kick on the left, which Lotte Sharp was unable to collect and the England fullback grasped the ball before reaching over to ground, with Harrison converting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">England soon sailed away with the game as a quick move from the lineout saw the ball offloaded to Cokayne, who touched down in the corner and they scored again when a quick switch in play saw the ball played into Breach in plenty of space to easily ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Following another good spell of pressure on the USA tryline, replacement Atkin-Davies powered over and Harrison converted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Kildunne was at the heart of England\u2019s 10th try, keeping her kick in before offloading to Breach to score and on her fifth World Cup appearance, Emily Scarratt was unable to convert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Atkin-Davies added a second try in the final five minutes from another maul and World Cup debutant Emma Sing added the extras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s RWC Pool A: England 69 USA 7 England began their World Cup campaign in style after running&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[4214,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-366919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-rugby-world-cup","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-us","11":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115077446776340938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}