‘A lot more coming’ from ‘scary’ England pack

The potential of England’s forward pack is “scary” following a 69-7 opening Rugby World Cup win over the United States, says New Zealand World Cup winner Ruby Tui.

Six of the Red Roses’ 11 tries in Sunderland came through their forwards, with their scrum dominating for the entire game.

Head coach John Mitchell offered post-match praise but made it clear the front eight are still not playing to their full potential.

“What stood out for me as the scariest thing is that Mitchell said that ‘yes our forward pack did great but there is so much left in that tank’,” Tui told BBC One.

“I believe that. There is so much more that the Red Roses forward pack can give, which if you look at the first half with Hannah Botterman’s steals and how well Sadia Kabeya played, that is scary.

The fixture drew the highest crowd in Women’s Rugby World Cup history, a turnout of 42,723 beating the 42,579 who watched New Zealand – featuring Tui – win the final in 2022 at Eden Park.

Mitchell’s side showed early nerves at their first home World Cup since 2010, especially when dealing with the restart, with handling errors also proving costly in the first half, but ran in seven tries after a half-time reset.

“The second half was the England show,” added Tui. “It was a flying performance for three-quarters of the game and they lit up the Stadium of Light.

Former England captain and World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi sensed some frustration from Mitchell.

The Red Roses head coach confirmed he will rotate his squad for the second pool game against Samoa next Saturday so everyone has played, which could further affect cohesion.

“Mitchell is not happy with that performance,” Alphonsi told BBC One.

“He will take away that England were not accurate. They had six weeks together and didn’t really execute.

“It is interesting to see how he reacts as he will expect more from his second group when they come out against Samoa.

“They will want to put out a performance that shows what they can do as you have to build it up.”

England last became world champions in 2014 and are on a 28-game winning run, having not lost since the World Cup final defeat by New Zealand in 2022.

Simon Middleton, who was in charge of England for that showpiece game three years ago and the 2017 final loss to the Black Ferns, disagreed that Mitchell would be unhappy with the opening performance.

“I think Mitchell will be all right with that as it was a difficult game,” Middleton told BBC One.

“You train, train, train and it was a typical opening game of the World Cup. The biggest thing is that it looks like they have come out of it with no injuries, which is so important, particularly at half-back.

“I thought their discipline was fantastic. Games like that can get loose. I thought they were aggressive around the contact area.