{"id":371826,"date":"2025-08-25T08:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371826\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T08:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:01:10","slug":"womens-rugby-world-cup-2025-five-talking-points-from-opening-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371826\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Rugby World Cup 2025: Five talking points from opening weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Big-hitters England, Canada and New Zealand all started with huge wins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hosts and favourites England scored 11 tries to beat Ilona Maher&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cn92pvd8ynvo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United States 69-7<\/a> in the tournament&#8217;s opener on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After singer Anne-Marie shone in the opening ceremony, world player of the year Kildunne stood out on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She produced the moment of the match by kicking the ball &#8211; like an England Lioness &#8211; through USA full-back Bulou Mataitoga&#8217;s legs on her way to a superb solo try.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cr4ep17pgv6o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prop forward Hannah Botterman<\/a> also starred as England produced a statement win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Even so, there was still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cp94p2y9rl3o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a sense of more to come,<\/a> with head coach John Mitchell insisting England &#8220;will get better&#8221; and be even more clinical.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That&#8217;s a scary thought for the other teams in the tournament, especially the Red Roses&#8217; next opponents Samoa, who they face on Saturday (17:00 BST).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">World number two side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cvg3z0ynz31o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canada were equally impressive as they thrashed Fiji 65-7<\/a> with winger Schell scoring a staggering six tries in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After the match Schell said a supporter had bet her $200 she wouldn&#8217;t score. &#8220;I need to go and speak to him,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Holders New Zealand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cn85q4nnjglo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">swept past Spain 54-8<\/a> despite playing the final quarter of their match with only 13 players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">World Cup record try-scorer Woodman-Wickliffe went over for the 21st time in the competition, while 21-year-old flanker Jorja Miller crossed twice to confirm her status as a superstar in the making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Three-time semi-finalists Australia, who are in England&#8217;s pool, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c39d2wjldzzo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">walloped Samoa 73-0<\/a> for the biggest World Cup win in their history, hinting that the Wallaroos could be contenders this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big-hitters England, Canada and New Zealand all started with huge wins. Hosts and favourites England scored 11 tries&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-371826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115088358472923673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371826","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=371826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}